The Indian Institute of Technology - Madras continues to be the best educational institution for engineering in the country. It maintains its lead as the second best institution overall, next only to the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, as per the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), 2018. The overall score of the IIT-M has improved from last year.
Tamil Nadu continues to boast of some of the best institutions in engineering, management, pharmacy, medicine and arts and science, as per the NIRF ratings which encourage institutions to volunteer their applications for the process.
IIT-M Director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said: “The ranking is an affirmation of the consistent hard work of our faculty, staff and students and the zeal with which we are implementing and exceeding the targets of our Strategic Plan 2020.”
Among the top five universities in the State three are public-funded institutions: they include Anna University, Bharathiar University and the University of Madras.
Turnaround story
The NIRF sprang a pleasant surprise on Tuesday when it ranked Presidency College in the colleges category. The 178-year-old co-ed college is ranked 5th, above Loyola College (6th), Madras Christian College (10th), Women’s Christian College (22nd) and Stella Maris College for Women (30). The institution, which was in the news not long ago for student clashes, has had a remarkable turnaround, according to P. Duraisamy, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Madras, the affiliating institution. Mr. Duraisamy credited the rank to teaching and learning practices, research and professional practice, and the perception about the college. He felt the inclusiveness offered by the college and its community outreach programme had helped the college achieve the distinction.
Presidency College principal T. Pramananda Perumal said in the past four years since he took over he had brought in some changes to motivate students. “The students have to appear for model exams and companies like TCS recruited our students in good numbers last year,” he said. The College also receives funding from national agencies such as UGC and DST.
The National Institute of Technology (NIT) Tiruchi has retained its first position among the 31 NITs in the country. “We will analyse the results carefully, take feedback from stakeholders, and improve in the coming years,” said its Director Mini Shaji Thomas.
Anna University’s registrar S. Ganesan attributed the rank improvement to the H index, the number of times a research paper produced by the University is cited. Last year, the university’s H index was 87 and this year it is 123. “H index indicates how many are referring to our papers. This means 123 papers have been referred by 123 people,” he explained. The University’s architecture course is rated 6th in the country and its management course is also rated among those offered by the top 30 institutions.
Though the State has the most number of government medical colleges none of them have made it to the list. However, the State can boast of excellence in pharmacy education. The College of Pharmacy of the Madras Medical College has dropped from 33rd rank last year to 41 rank this year whereas the JSS College of Pharmacy in the Nilgiris has risen from 17th rank to the first position. Annamalai University’s pharmacy college has dropped from 13 to 20.
Private performance
The State is home to some of the best private universities. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham has been ranked 8th. P. Venkat Rangan, Vice Chancellor, said: “This is a testament to the tradition of academic excellence, outstanding faculty and world-class infrastructure that Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham is known for since its inception in 2003.”
Higher education secretary Sunil Paliwal said it was commendable that many government colleges had applied for the ranking framework. “The government has been focusing on Infrastructure, NIRF and NAAC in the monthly meetings with V-Cs. We are conscious of the H index and everybody has taken effort to give data. Our State’s performance is way ahead of others,” he said.
