Tech institutes in Odisha list out reasons for their dismal performance in NIRF rankings  

The month of April was disappointing for state-run technical institutes and universities of Odisha as not a single one was among the top 100 in the National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF) India ranking 2019 released by the Ministry of Human Resources Development. Some of these institutions, in letters to the Skill Development and Technical Education (SDTE) department, addressed this issue by citing reasons such as inadequate infrastructure, faculty shortage and dismal implementation of research programmes for the poor performance. 

Technical universities and institutes such as Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT); Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology (IGIT), Sarang; Institute of Management and Information Technology (IMIT), Cuttack; Government College of Engineering (GCE), Keonjhar; College of IT and Management Education (CIME), Bhubaneswar and Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), Burla presented several issues which doesn’t let them compete with those engineering institutes at the national level. These institutes are unable to meet the NIRF parameters of teaching, learning and resources, research and professional practise as well as graduation outcome. 

Authorities of the College of IT and Management Education, in their report to the department, have stated that the faculty crunch, which in turn has resulted in non-availability of sponsored research projects or consultancy works, has affected their performance at the national level.

VSSUT, which managed to get 126th position among engineering institutes in the NIRF ranking, also pointed out a number of issues affecting its performance. The university’s score has remained poor in terms of research and professional practices due to less number of publications in journals. Officials of the department, however, are yet to respond to this matter.