HYDERABAD: Telangana was placed last among all southern States in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) list released recently by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).
According to sources in the Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE), the State has always been far behind all other South Indian States since 2016 as the State government has never really focused on higher education.
In fact, it is always the central universities which are located in the State that get figured in the NIRF rankings.
This year too, all the central universities, including the University of Hyderabad (UoH), Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IIT-H), and National Institute of Technology, Warangal (NIT-W), figured in the top 100.
In the meantime, the only Telangana State-run university that made it to the MHRD’s NIRF list was the Osmania University (OU), which was ranked 29th in the university category.
In the overall top 100, Tamil Naidu had 18 universities/institutions listed, of which 12 are State universities, followed by Kerala with four State universities, Karnataka with three State-run universities and Andhra Pradesh with three State universities, while only one Telangana State university, Osmania University, managed to get into the list and that too with its ranks falling to 53 in 2020 from 43 in 2019.
“It is high time the government improved the infrastructure of its institutions, and also recruit more staff. Then, maybe after a few years, a few more institutes would be able to make it to the list,” said an official from TSCHE who wished to remain anonymous.
“The State government has only focused on power, irrigation and rural schemes so far. It’s time for them to shift its focus to higher education which is collapsing, as we can see. The ranks are clearing showing the state of our universities,” the official added.