BHUBANESWAR: For the first time, Utkal University, Odisha’s premier seat of education, has found a place among top 100 universities in the National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF) India Ranking.
Conducted by Ministry of Human Resources Development, the NIRF-2020 ranking puts Utkal at 96th position. It is also the only state university to figure in the list this year.
Vice Chancellor Soumendra Mohan Patnaik said the university has improved its rank by 50 positions.
“Collaboration with international and well-established institutions for research, strong PhD input and outstanding publications in international journals have helped us improve the rank of the university,” Patnaik said, adding, the focus is to make Utkal one of the top 30 universities in the country and secure A++ accreditation from NAAC in 2021.
The oldest university in the State, Utkal enjoys an elevated standing in the realm of higher education. The Government has invested in infrastructure development of the University to ensure it scales new heights, said officials of Higher Education department. It is National Institute of Technology (NIT)-Rourkela - placed 32nd in the overall ranking of top 100 educational institutions in India - that emerged as the best of Odisha. It made an improvement against previous year’s 38th rank.
Three other university and institutions -- SOA University, KIIT and IIT Bhubaneswar -- continued to figure in the list of India’s top 100 higher educational institutions in the overall ranking. SOA University Bhubaneswar improved its rank to 38th from 41st last year while KIIT University improved its rank to 44 from 50 last year. Interestingly, IIT Bhubaneswar lost its 46th position and dropped to 56th among top 100 educational institutions this year. Apart from Utkal, the SOA University and KIIT were ranked 20th and 24th respectively in the list of top 100 universities.
The Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) Burla was placed in the rank band of 101 to 150, while Centurion University of Technology and Management is in the band of 151 to 200 top universities. The NIRF announced its rankings under 10 different categories this year - Overall, University, Engineering, College, Management, Pharmacy, Medical, Dental, Architecture and Law. XIMB Bhubaneswar was ranked 31 in the Management category.
The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Sambalpur was placed in the rank band of 76 to 100 in this category. The National Law University in Cuttack has been ranked 14 in the law category.
The institutions and universities that ranked in the list of top 100 engineering institutes include NIT Rourkela (16), IIT Bhubaneswar (22), SOA University (34), KIIT (42) and CV Raman College of Engineering (93). VSSUT Burla has been ranked 119, while Silicon Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar also figures in the list at 179 position.