July 10: They say there are two kinds of statistics - the kind you look up and the kind you cook up. Mumbai University's Department of Statistics' ratings for city colleges fall in the second category.Of the 17 city colleges where the survey was conducted (based on three sets of questionnaires for students, teachers and non-teaching staff), reputed colleges like D G Ruparel, Ramnarain Ruia and Bhavans have been found only ``Satisfactory,'' while MV&LU in Andheri and R D National College, Bandra, have been placed on top as ``Excellent'' colleges.St Xavier's College, recently placed among the top ten colleges in the country by India Today, was humbled and put in the second rung category of ``Very Good'' along with the less-sought-after Jhunjhunwala and Vaze colleges.While MSc students of statistics who were involved in this project say they were surprised at their own findings, the heads of institutes that went through this roller-coaster statistical ride aren't exactly smiling.``Nobody is taking this grading seriously, it is just a publicity stunt,'' remarked the principal of Ruia college, Dr R T Sane. He said principals have more faith in the national survey of India Today which ranked Ruia and Ruparel as 12th and 16th in the country respectively.Principal D B Kadam of Bhavans college, Andheri, also couldn't come up with a single praise for this endeavour. ``I was not aware of this, you are the first person to tell me about this gradation. But if Ruparel college is also placed last, what more can I say about this exercise of mere numbers and percentages,'' Principal Kadam said.However, two Mumbai University students, Anand Jayswal and Bhavana Chandrachud, who personally worked on the grading along with nine others, reasoned: ``Our domain of operation was only restricted to TYBSc, that too in the subjects of physics, chemistry and botany. Under expert guidance of our professors Dr U J Dixit and Dr R G Shenoy, we had to grade colleges on the basis of a fixed questionnaire, leading to the conclusion.''Adding that there was no flaw in their statistical analysis, the students said: ``This is just a small beginning we have made. Later, exhaustive research will have to be done by the university to properly grade all colleges, if centralisation of degree admissions is to be introduced next year.''Each questionnaire comprised around 20 questions that probed students and teachers on what their impressions were of the college, its library, teaching methods etc. Interestingly, most students from certain suburban colleges like Vaze felt they were inferior to south Mumbai colleges like Jai Hind and Xavier's. Surprisingly, teachers from Mithibai said that they were not happy with their pupils as they often demanded ready-made notes!Only 42 per cent of the students questioned felt their professors had adequate knowledge of the subjects. Sixteen per cent students affirmed their teachers completed the syllabus on time.Bidisha Ghosh, V Kavita, Madhavi Vemuri, Prajakta Vaidya, Sajini Mathew, Sandesh B, Sujata Seshadri, Vrushali Nunes and Vishvas Jadhav were the other members of the team involved in the task. But of course, they won't agree to the three kinds of lies in the world: lies, damn lies and statistics.
