Ernakulam colleges score well in NIRF rankings
KOCHI: The institutions of higher education in the state performed well in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings with 19 colleges making it to the first 100. Of these institutions, the colleges in Ernakulam fared very well with Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, St Teresa’s College and Sacred Heart’s College coming 28th, 47th and 55th, respectively, in the NIRF rank list.
The teachers, students and college officials are all on cloud nine because better ranking means better prospects of getting funds for the development of the institution. “Five parameters are taken into consideration for the rankings. They are teaching-learning and resources (TLR), research and professional practice (RPC), graduation outcome (GO), outreach and inclusivity (OI) and perception,” said Binoy Joseph, principal, Rajagiri College of Social Sciences.
According to him, the college was able to break into the first 30 in the list due to the increased number of research publications compared to last year. “We got the maximum points in the TLR and GO parameters,” he added. St Teresa’s College that stands fourth in the state and second in the district after Rajagiri College, credited their achievement to the improved track record in student placement and quality of the faculty.
“We were able to refine the data that was sent for the ranking in a much better way than last year and hence jumped from 64 to 47 in the list,” said Usha Nair, Internal Quality Assurance Cell coordinator, St Teresa’s College. According to her, the college put the onus on the quality of the faculty and didn’t compromise on the qualification of the teachers while recruiting for the various self-financing courses being offered by the institution. “However, we need to take care of one grey area - research publications. We have to do a lot in this parameter,” she added.
According to her, the college was expecting to be in the first 50. “We thought maybe 50. But we are happy to have bagged the 47th rank,” said Usha. Meanwhile, the Sacred Heart College, at Thevara was able to improve its ranking by just two spots.“We are ranked 55th. We will be able to get a clear picture only after analysing the points that we obtained in the parameters,” said Fr Prasanth Palakkappillil, principal. According to him, the retirement of the senior professors hit them hard.
“It is not that the younger crop is not doing their best. But, they need time to build up the credentials garnered by seniors. Also, the number of research papers are not up to the mark,” he said.However, we will be improving our position and for this measures are being taken, added Fr Prashant. “We had earlier broken into the first 30 and will get into the first 25,” he added. Meanwhile, Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) came 62nd among the universities in the country, while Kerala University and Mahatma Gandhi University were ranked 23 and 30, respectively.