Did Cambridge University lose its credibility after Rahul Gandhi’s visit?

Claim

Invite a duffer to talk on geopolitics, who insults his nation in a foreign country and mocks  democratic election process in front of global mafia, this is what happens. You lose credibility for giving such a duffer with zero credibility a public platform.

Twitter Link | Archive Link

Rating

Explanation

Rahul Gandhi recently delivered a speech to the students of Cambridge University on the topic “Learning to Listen in the 21st Century”. Meanwhile, a newspaper clipping is shared widely on Twitter to claim that Cambridge University lost its credibility after inviting Rahul Gandhi as its guest speaker. Some of the posts with such a claim can be seen here and here.

The Guardian newspaper clip reads “Cambridge slips to lowest-ever place in world university table. UK’s downward trend continues as two-thirds of its ranked universities tumble”. The viral posts share this clip mentioning that the institution lost its credibility for giving a duffer (referring to Rahul Gandhi) with zero credibility a public platform to talk on geopolitics. Further, the posts add that this is what happens when someone who insults his nation in a foreign country and mocks the democratic election process in front of the global mafia is invited.

What is the truth?

When searching with the keywords from the newspaper clip, we found that the newspaper clipping is real and not edited. However, the article by The Guardian dates back to 19, June 2019, and is not a recent one published after Rahul Gandhi’s visit in Cambridge University.

The article reported that Cambridge slipped from sixth to seventh, its lowest-ever position, as a result of steadily declining research performance. The report was compiled by QS, a Data and Research group, and its director Ben Sowter, mentioned that UK’s performance was not a surprise as the fall in the ranking was seen each year. He also added that the downward trend of Cambridge is not necessarily a sign that it is struggling. He mentioned so because it reflected a rebalancing of spending away from research towards teaching.

The article also reported that the QS world rankings methodology is based on employer and academic reputation, class sizes, research output, and international staff and students numbers. And a drop in the number of students per staff is mentioned as one of the main problems for the UK.

When searching for the recent QS ranking of Cambridge University, it is found on their website that it has risen to third position in QS World University Rankings 2022.

The QS University Rankings website mentions Cambridge in second position in 2023 Rankings.

Conclusion

It is found that the newspaper clipping of ‘The Guardian’ seen in the viral post is true but an old one from 2019 where Rahul Gandhi made his visit to Cambridge in 2023. Therefore, the claim that Cambridge University lost its credibility after Rahul Gandhi’s visit is false.

Please complete the required fields.




Back to top button