For the ninth time in a row, no college from Odisha found a spot in the Ministry of Education's National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF) released on Monday, August 12.
Around 3,371 colleges across the country had participated in NIRF, of which, 14 were from Odisha including leading ones like BJB College, Maharshi College of Natural Law, Prananath College, SCS College and Kendrapara College.
However, none from the state could score adequately to secure a rank.
Evaluation of colleges for NIRF ranking was started by the ministry in 2022 and till this year, only 31 from the state have participated in it. There are 1,058 degree colleges in the state.
Research output
Academicians said while teaching-learning is an important parameter that the colleges have been missing out on, the institutional ranking weighs heavily on research and innovation.
Close to 35 per cent of the total marks are devoted to research and a very small number of colleges in the state currently have limited research activities.
"In fact, in the case of colleges of Odisha, research output is negligible. Only recently, students and young faculty members of colleges have started working on research projects under the Mukhyamantri Research Fellowship Programme. The output of this will be visible only after three years," said an official of the Odisha State Higher Education Council (OSHEC).
Another factor, they said, is colleges' expenditure on students.
This includes all expenses that an institution incurs per student except civil infrastructure of the campus. While in premier colleges in other states, expenditure per student is close to Rs 80,000, only a few bigger colleges in Odisha spend around Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000. Colleges have also scored low in public perception of institutions category which constitutes 10 per cent of the total marks.
Former Vice-Chairperson of Odisha State Higher Education Council (OSHEC) Ashok Das said while it is a positive sign that colleges have started participating in NIRF, the institutions need to come up with a long-term plan to prepare for such national-level rankings.
"They could work out a three-year or five-year plan to improve their research output for facing rankings like NIRF. Besides, the focus should now be on content creation (teaching-learning modules, skill education) rather than diverting funds towards infrastructure development except construction of labs, libraries, and so on," he said.
Long way to go
- 14 colleges from Odisha participate in NIRF this year
- All the colleges were ranked in 1 to 300 band
- Only 31 colleges from Odisha have participated in NIRF till date
- Research output in Odisha's colleges is negligible
