Overview

• Speaking at SPPU’s 126th convocation, Maharashtra Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil said frequent campus agitations and a hiring freeze hurt the university’s NIRF ‘perception’ and deter foreign students.
• Patil acknowledged a faculty shortage and said roughly 111–113 approved posts have been vacant for about 18 months due to financial and procedural hurdles, adding that recruitment would be resolved soon.
• Official NIRF data show the perception score was 16.61 in 2025 after 24.29 in 2024, with most years since 2018 clustered around 15–17 and the 2018 peak overall rank achieved with a 15.04 perception score.
• The Teaching, Learning and Resources parameter has seen a clear slide, dropping from 70.70 in 2018 to 51.46 in 2025, indicating sustained erosion in capacity and resources.
• SPPU’s overall rank declined from 37 in 2024 to 91 in 2025, and the convocation conferred 98,821 degrees with NAAC executive council chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe as chief guest.