Gujarat University has failed to secure a position in the list of top 100 universities
In a setback to higher education in Gujarat, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad has slipped its position to number 2 in the Ministry of Human Resource and Developments annual ranking released on Monday. The ministry's National Institutional Ranking Framework, which is now in its third year, evaluates colleges and universities across the country based on various parameters including teaching and learning resources, research practices, inclusivity and placement records.
After retaining its number 1 position for past two years, IIMA was ranked at 2, following IIM Bangalore that was rated as the best management school in the country. Apart from the overall list, rankings were also announced in eight other categories. These include lists for the best universities and colleges as well as discipline-wise rankings for engineering, medicine, pharmacy, law, architecture and management colleges.
Only two institutes from Gujarat made it to the top 100 in overall ranking that included Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar at 51 rank and Anand Agricultural University at rank 96. In individual categories, IITGN showed improvement with rank 24 as against 27 last year. Two colleges from Gujarat made it to top 100, improving their positions. While PD Patel Science college was ranked at 26 as against 48 last year, St Xavier's college was ranked at 56 as against 65 last year. Five pharmacy colleges made it to top 100 from state including NIPER ranked at 9 followed by MS University at 17, Nirma university at 21, LM College of Pharmacy at 31 and BK Modi Government Pharmacy college at 6.
In Management category, Nirma university was ranked at 40 and IRMA ranked at 51 whereas in engineering, IITGn was ranked at 24, SVNIT ranked at 58 and Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication (DAIICT) at 91. Interestingly, Gujarat university did not feature in any category. Experts felt discrepancy in the data and disconnect between the data provided by the institutes and data interpreted by the third party.
A head of an institute requesting anonymity said, "It is not possible that an institute has performed very well individual category but has performed bad in overall category. For example, many institutes were ranked very well in 2016, and all those lost their position massively in following years."
Academicians speak:
Bimal Patel, Director, GNLU said, "I think we deserved a much better rank than 9 as per our analysis and comparison with other national law universities. In terms of faculty hiring, we stand at number 2 across the country, a month ago, we were rated the best in the state rankings. We are the only university in NLU's that have supernumerary quota for J&K and North East students. While we are not here just to criticize, there is scope to improve a lot. To us, how much an institution is contributing to the nations development and addresses societal problems, should also be a parameter. We will be sending our suggestion to the NIRF."
For Sudhir Jain, director, IITGn, the overall performance and ranking at 51 is decent. "There are diverse institutes across the country, so I feel we have faired well. Any institute is known by their faculty and the work their faculty members are doing and we have done good in both categories."
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "IIM-A")
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}