The very mention of Presidency College in Chennai brings up images of students going rogue on the streets, brandishing knives and sickles. Even just two months ago, they were in the news for vandalising a railway station in the city. But now, that image is set to change as the College surprisingly grabbed the fifth place in the NIRF ranking announced on Tuesday. The College figured nowhere in the list last year but managed to beat one of the city's top- Loyola to make it to fifth place this year.
Last year, Loyola grabbed the second position in the NIRF ranking but slipped four places to number six this year. Bishop Heber College, Tiruchirapalli managed to retain its fourth position, the only other college from Tamil Nadu to make it to the top five. Chennai's Madras Christian College jumped two places to number 10 this year.
For decades now, Presidency Collge has been famous for its college rivalry, politics and violence on campus and outside. Even movies have been made based on the rivalry between Pachiayappas College and Presidency College. Therefore, the new ranking comes as a shock as well as a pleasant surprise especially for the students and management of Presidency.
Speaking to Edex, Pramananda Perumal, Principal, Presidency College said that he was absolutely elated by the news, "We are very happy with the results.We are one of the oldest colleges in the country. Many eminent personalities have graduated from our college including Nobel Laureates like CV Raman, even S Radhakrishnan our first vice president, politicians like Chidambaram, Stalin, Vaiko, Thirumalavalan are all from here. With this new ranking, it shows that we have gone back to focusing on academics - our old style of functioning," he said.
Perumal says that ever since he took up his position four years ago, he has made it a point to bring full focus to academics and not let the students get distracted by unnecessary college politics, rivalry and violence,"I show my students a lot of love and I listen to them. I'm always there for them and they know that. But I've also made sure that I don't lose control over them. This is the reason why we have managed to get such a good ranking," he explained.
