Six institutions from Assam ranked among India's best

IIT Guwahati, Gauhati University, Tezpur University, Dibrugarh University, Assam University and JB College communities exult after making it to India Rankings 2017

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

Guwahati, April 4: In a development that could go a long way to encourage much desired qualitative changes in higher education in Assam, six institutions from the State have secured respectable positions in the India Rankings 2017 conducted by tiol Institutiol Ranking Framework (NIRF) under the Union Human Resource Development ministry.

Teachers and students of IIT Guwahati, Gauhati University, Dibrugarh University, Tezpur University, Assam University and JB College, Jorhat were visibly elated on Tuesday after news came of their institutions being ranked among the best in the country.     

IIT Guwahati has been awarded the eighth position overall among all participating universities & institutions, and seventh position among the top engineering institutions in India.

The India Rankings 2017 is a ranking of higher educatiol institutions on performance. The NIRF India Ranking 2017 was released on Monday by HRD minister Prakash Javadekar at a press conference in New Delhi.

NIRF was approved by the HRD ministry and launched in September last year.  The framework of the ranking outlines a methodology to rank institutions across the country. The methodology draws from the overall recommendations and understanding arrived at by a Core Committee set up by HRD ministry, to identify the broad parameters for ranking various universities and institutions.

These parameters broadly cover ‘Teaching, Learning and Resources’, ‘Research and Professiol Practices’, ‘Graduation Outcomes’, ‘Outreach and Inclusivity’  and ‘Perception’.

For India Rankings– 2017, the main ranking parameters remained the same. However, there were a few significant changes in some of the sub-parameters. Also, this year every large institution was given a common overall rank as well as a discipline-specific rank as applicable.

An elated Prof. Gautam Biswas, Director, IIT Guwahati, expressed his pleasure on the outcome, giving credit to everyone of his institute for such prestigious ranking.

“The spirit of creation of new knowledge together with novel teaching and research initiatives of our faculty members, intelligence, sincerity and hard work of our students, brilliance and perseverance of our research scholars, spirit of service of staff members and dedication of our officers have made it possible. We need to move forward with higher targets in mind. We need to scale newer heights,” Prof Biswas told The Sentinel.

Two other institutions of higher learning from the State have also figured in the top 50 of Overall Ranking of NIRF India Rankings– 2017. Gauhati University secured 43rd rank while Tezpur University secured 48th rank.

In University Level Ranking, Gauhati University secured 27th rank, Tezpur University secured 30th rank, Dibrugarh University secured 74th rank and Assam University secured 92nd rank.

In College Level Ranking, Jaganth Barooah College (JB College), Jorhat has secured 64th rank. It needs to be mentioned that JB College is the only college from Assam to find a place in the ranking.

Vice Chancellor of Gauhati University Dr. Mridul Hazarika told The Sentinel that the rankings indicate ‘silent and qualitative changes’ in the field of higher education of Assam. He said the high ranking has also brought greater responsibility to the Gauhati University community and the resolve to excel more in future. “It is time to introspect on our strengths and weaknesses,” Dr. Hazarika said.

The HRD ministry has adjudged Delhi’s Miranda House and Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science as India’s best college and university respectively. Loyola College in Cheni and Shri Ram College have been ranked the second and third best colleges in India.

In the Overall Rankings, apart from top ranked Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, sixth-ranked Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi and tenth-ranked Baras Hindu University, Varasi, as many as seven IITs make up the top 10 institutes of higher education in the country.