In 2020, the University of Calcutta was ranked first for merit and performance.

There is insufficient evidence that Calcutta University's performance.

There is insufficient evidence that Calcutta University's performance. On April 2, 2021, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee shared a tweetthat read "Pleased to share that Calcutta University has been adjudged 1st among all Indian universities for merit & performance, as per the renowned Shanghai Ranking or Academic Ranking of World Universities 2020. CU has also ranked 3rd among all higher education institutes in India."

With the ongoing West Bengal Assembly elections, Banerjee is taking every opportunity to shine a positive light on the state's achievements. Banerjee's tweet indicated that the University of Calcutta ranked first in the ratings, but the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has secured the first position in the ARWU ranking charts for India.

According to the Shanghai Ranking (Academic Ranking of World Universities) website, in 2020, the IISc holds the first rank in India and the world rank of 501-600. The second rank is held by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), with the world rank of 601 - 700. The University of Calcutta holds the third national rank, with a world rank of 601 - 700.

ARWU uses six objective indicators to rank world universities. They are:

1. The number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (Alumni)

2. The number of highly cited researchers (HiCi) selected by Clarivate Analytics (Award)

3. The number of articles published (PUB) in journals of Nature and Science(N&S)

4. The number of articles indexed in the Science Citation Index

5. Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index

6. Per capita performance (PCP) of a university

For each indicator, the highest scoring institution is assigned a score of 100, and other institutions are rated as a percentage of the top score. An institution's rank reflects the number of institutions that sit above it. IISc scored 0 in under alumni indicator, while the University of Calcutta scored 18. For the award indicator, IISc scored 0, while Calcutta University scored 9.1.

For the HiCi indicator, both IISc and Calcutta University scored 0. IISc scored 2.7 for the N&S indicator, while Calcutta University scored 0. Under the PUB indicator, IISc scored 41.4, and Calcutta University scored 20.1. IISc scored 16.4 for the PCP indicator, and Calcutta University scored 10.

Later in the day after Mamata's tweet, the Press Trust of India cited the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta, Sonali Chakraborty Banerjee, in a tweet that read, "Calcutta University secures first place among Indian universities, third position among top higher educational institutions in country in Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2020." Other media outlets have cited PTI on this. There is no other evidence to verify Calcutta University's first position among Indian universities for merit and performance.