BHUBANESWAR: UTKAL University was yet again the only State-run university to secure a rank among top-100 universities in the National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF) India Ranking-2021 while Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) University topped the overall chart in the State apart from being at the 20th slot among varsities in the country.
The ranking released by the Ministry of Education on Thursday saw Utkal University improve its rank to 87 this year from 96 in 2020. In the Overall ranking of higher education institutions across India, four other educational institutions of the State including SOA University, National Institute of Technology-Rourkela (NIT-R), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bhubaneswar and Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) were among the toppers in the NIRF Overall list.
SOA University improved its rank to 37 from 38 last year while KIIT University improved its rank to 39 from 44 last year. At University level, apart from Utkal, SOA University was ranked 20th in the list of top-100 universities and Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), Burla was placed in the rank band of 101 to 150.
However, NIT-R which had got 32nd rank last year, dropped to 41st position this time. The IIT-Bhubaneswar lost its 56th position and came down to 58th rank among top 100 educational institutions this year.
Similarly, Xavier University and IIM-Sambalpur were ranked 34 and 61 respectively in the Management category. KIIT and the National Law University in Cuttack ranked 10 and 18 respectively in the Law category.
The institutions and universities that ranked in the list of top-100 engineering institutes include NIT-R at 20, IIT-Bhubaneswar (28), SOA University (32), KIIT (39), CV Raman Global University (100), VSSUT (116). Silicon Institute of Technology has been ranked 163 and Centurion University of Technology and Management also figures in the list at 185th position.
The NIRF announced its rankings under 11 different categories this year - Overall, University, Engineering, College, Management, Pharmacy, Medical, Dental, Architecture and Law besides, Research. Although the other public universities in the State participated in the annual ranking, none could score a rank in the 1-200 rank band.