BHUBANESWAR: India’s top-100 higher educational institutions (HEIs) include three from Odisha - Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA University), KIIT and NIT-Rourkela. State’s premier Utkal university is among the 50 leading public universities in the country.
This was revealed in the Ministry of Education’s National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF) India Ranking-2024 report, released by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday.
SOA University, KIIT and NIT-Rourkela have bagged 24, 28 and 34 rank respectively in the list of Top-100 institutes in the overall ranking of educational institutions across the country. The three institutions have improved their ranks marginally from NIRF-2023.
However, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bhubaneswar does not figure in the list this time. It has slipped to the 101 to 150 rank band. From 65th position in 2022, the prestigious institute had dropped to 91 rank among top 100 educational institutions last year.
Along with 13 regular categories - overall, university, engineering, college, management, pharmacy, medical, dental, innovation, architecture and planning, agriculture, law, research - NIRF announced its rankings under three new categories of open university, skill university and public university this year.
In the overall ranking, Utkal University continued to remain in the 151-200 rank band along with institutes like CV Raman Global University and OUAT. However, when it comes to the list of top-50 State Public Universities across the country, Utkal University was adjudged as the 42nd best in the country. It is the only government-run university from Odisha to find a mention in the list.
In the top-100 universities, SOA University and KIIT figured in 14th and 15th rank respectively. In this category, Sambalpur and Utkal universities are in the 101 to 150 rank band.
As far as general colleges are concerned, none of the colleges from Odisha made it to the top 300 list. This despite the fact that 14 institutions including leading autonomous colleges like Bhubaneswar-based BJB College and Maharshi College of Natural Law, SCS College at Puri and Rourkela Government College had taken part in the assessment this year.
The NIRF research ranking has NIT-Rourkela at 30th rank (slipped by one point compared to last year) and KIIT and SOA at 46th and 50th positions respectively. Like the previous years, IIT-Bhubaneswar did not find a spot in this category.
Similarly, among 100 best institutes providing management education, XIM University and IIM-Sambalpur were ranked 43 and 50 respectively. Although SOA University and KIIT also find place in the list, they are preceded by Bhubaneswar-based International Management Institute which has got 61st rank.
In the engineering category, five institutions from the State have found spots in the top-100 list with NIT-Rourkela ranked 19. SOA university again topped among the top law institutions in the country by bagging ninth rank. KIIT and the National Law University in Cuttack ranked 11 and 26 respectively in this category.
Likewise in medical education, three colleges are in the top 100. They are AIIMS-Bhubaneswar (15), SOA University (21), and KIIT (25). SCB Medical College and Hospital, which had scored 44 rank in 2022, did not participate in the ranking this time.
Positive trend
SOA, KIIT and NIT-R ranked 24,28 and 34 respectively
Utkal University 42nd best varsity
SOA and KIIT ranked 14 and 15 respectively in top-100 varsities