The research output of many educational institutions is steadily growing — as indicated in the recently-released report of Scopus, an abstracting and indexing database that includes over 19,000 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers.
While IIT-Madras tops the list of institutions in the State with the highest number of research papers indexed by the database, VIT University is a close second. The other universities from the State to make it to the top 12 are PSG College of Technology, Sastra University, SRM University and Amrita University.
Ranked first in the nation-wide list is Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. C. Ramalingam, associate dean, (research) at VIT University said, “Scopus rankings are important because the University Grants Commission considers them while reviewing universities. For the third consecutive year, VIT has more publications than any other private institution in the country.”
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Prof. Ramalingam added that ever since the university began project-based learning for its students and research scholars, there has been a substantial increase in the interest taken in research. “Research and teaching need to go hand in hand. We encourage our teachers to take an interest in research activities,” he said.
He also said that while the maximum number of publications was still from the sciences, engineering too was picking up. Heads of other universities who have made it to the list too, are delighted.
Dean (planning & development), SASTRA University, S. Vaidhyasubramaniam, said, “Competition in research is healthy and that progressive private universities like VIT, SASTRA and Amrita are engaged in active publications surpassing NITs, does the State proud. The last five years have seen a massive investment and effort made by private universities who have moved up the academic value chain and this trend needs to be encouraged.”
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