Old Report On Cambridge Rank Drop Falsely Linked To Rahul Gandhi's Visit

A report by the Guardian on the drop in the University of Cambridge's global rankings is being shared with the claim that it is linked to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's recent talk at the university.

BOOM found this claim to be false; the report dates back to 2019 and is unrelated to  Gandhi's recent talk.

On his ongoing visit to the United Kingdom, Gandhi gave a speech on March 3, 2023, on the topic of "Learning to Listen in the 21st Century". During the speech, he spoke about his experiences from Bharat Jodo Yatra, and an ongoing attack on Indian democracy, which drew the ire of the ruling-Bharatiya Janata Party in India.

A screenshot of The Guardian report, titled, "Cambridge slips to lowest-ever place in the world university table," was shared by the posts with the following caption:

"When you invite a duffer to talk on geopolitics, this agenda-driven man who insults his nation in a foreign country and mocks the democratic election process in front of global mafia, this is what happens to such an University. It only loses credibility."

We found such posts on both Twitter and Facebook.

Fact-Check

Rahul Gandhi has spoken at Cambridge on two different occasions - one was an interaction with the university students in May, 2022, and another was the recent talk he delivered earlier this March.

BOOM did a Google search with the article headline "Cambridge slips to lowest-ever place in world university table", and came across the article by The Guardian dated June 19, 2019 - nearly four years before Gandhi's recent visit, and three years before his first visit.

The article spoke of how Cambridge, along with other British universities were dropping in the ranks compiled by data research group QS.

Furthermore, the article made no mention of Gandhi, and linked the drop in the university's rankings to 'financial squeeze' following the 2016 Brexit referendum. 

The report added, "The changes means that Cambridge has now fallen behind ETH Zurich in sixth place, making the Swiss technical university the second-highest ranked institution in Europe after Oxford, which last year overtook Cambridge for the first time."