The first ever all-India ranking of national institutions by Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) has some good news for Odisha. And some pretty ordinary. Two of the top engineering institutes – National Institute of Technology (NIT)-Rourkela and Indian Institute of Bhubaneswar (IIT-Bhu) have notched up top ranks.
NIT-Rourkela, formerly Rourkela Engineering College, came on top in the State with an overall national ranking of 19. The IIT-Bhubaneswar, one of the young IITs which has completed four batches as yet, has been ranked 26th. The two operate under MHRD.
But the same can not be said of the State-run universities. There are 16 universities in Odisha, ten of them run by Odisha Government. But only two – both private – have found place on the list of the top 100 universities of the country. Siksha O Anusandhan University was placed at the 26th spot while KIIT University received 53rd rank.
It pretty much sums up the story as only the private varsities registered themselves to be assessed by National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) whereas none of the 10 government-run universities did. Outcome of the ranking survey exercise, which assessed institutions in five categories, has brought some interesting facts to light. While there were only two universities on MHRD list, six engineering institutes found themselves among the top 100 ranks.
A closer look reveals that Rourkela-based NIT has secured fourth rank among 12 NITs operating in India. Similarly, IIT-Bhubaneswar, according to NIFR, can be truly considered a “Rising Star” along with six other IITs. The rest engineering colleges are, again, private institutes.
While KIIT got 32nd rank, it is followed by NIST, Berhampur at 69th place, CV Raman College of Engineering at 74th and Centurion Institute of Technology at 81st rank. There are over 80 private and six government engineering colleges which offer UG courses in the State.
Surprisingly, not a single management institute from the State has featured among the top 50 B-schools of the country.
In the pharmacy institutes list, Baripada-based Seemanta Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences was placed 49th among top 50.
NIRF based its assessment on five basic parameters which included Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR), Research Productivity, Impact and IPR (RPII), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI), Graduation Outcome (GO) and Perception (PR).
The survey outcome has also thrown up serious questions about the state of affairs of the institutes of higher learning in the State.
The ten government-run universities, most of which have not obtained NAAC accreditation, did not even register themselves for NIRF citing problems of deadline and non-availability of data from their constituent colleges.
Three of them are in their nascence and yet to have their Syndicate and Vice Chancellors. Utkal University of Culture is yet to get recognition of University Grants Commission under Section 12(B) which allows it to secure financial grants.
However, the varsities and national engineering institutes are upbeat about the survey outcome. Director of IIT-Bhubaneswar Dr RV Raja Kumar said the ranking is a very good step forward as it opens up the institutes to a global platform.
“Public perception about an institute takes time to build. Ours is a young IIT and we are trying to improve faculty, teaching-learning, infrastructure, academic culture and research works,” he told this paper.
NIT-Rourkela Director Prof Sunil Kumar Sarangi said the 19th rank was satisfactory and felt that the ranking process could be made further broad-based in the years to come.
Prasanta Patnaik 
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