In 2017, when the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) started coming out with the overall rankings system, IIT Bhubaneswar managed 66th spot. In the seven years since, instead of moving up, IIT Bhubaneswar has shed points, dropping out of the top-100 education institutions’ list in the country.
IIT Bhubaneswar’s rankings is in stark contrast to that of IIT Hyderabad.Both were established in 2008. In 2017, the Hyderabad-based institute was ranked 26. This year, it has moved up to 12th, showing the rapid strides it has made in these years.
In comparison, IIT Bhubaneswar’s fortunes has slowly gone downhill. In 2018 and 2019, it did manage to improve its rankings to 51 and 46, respectively. It fuelled hope. Then Covid came, and along with it the downward spiral.
From 56th in 2020, it slipped two places in the rankings next year which became 65th in 2022 and 91st last year. This year was even worse, as it was ranked in the 101-150 bracket.
The malaise seems to be everywhere. In engineering, IIT Bhubaneswar secured 54th rank with a score of 52.54, whereas IIT Hyderabad stood eighth with 71.55. IIT Bhubaneswar could not even enter the innovation category list, while IIT Hyderabad took the third place.
IIT Bhubaneswar managed to get 35.88 out of 100 in research and professional practice (RP) and 33.72 out of 100 in perception. Compared to it, the Hyderabad institute received 57.5 in RP and 65.31 in perception.
Research and professional practice has five sub-parameters including publications (PU), quality of publications (QP), IPR and patents, and footprint of projects and professional practice (FPPP).
Surprisingly, IIT Bhubaneswar has got just 0.75 out of 15 in IPR and patents, 2.27 out of 10 in FPPP, 16.03 out of 30 in PU, and 16.83 out of 40 in QP.
This shows the institute needs to focus on research work, file patents, publish good research articles, bring both sponsored and consultancy projects as well as improve other parameters.
What ails IITBBS
IIT Bhubaneswar director Shreepad Karmalkar felt all is not lost. He said their overall NIRF score has marginally improved and the perception about IIT Bhubaneswar has risen by 36%. “Moreover, we maintained a UG placement of as high as 86%, whereas some IITs saw a significant decline. Yet our rank dropped,” Karmalkar said, listing two major reasons for it.
Firstly, other institutes improved their score. Secondly, the number of faculty members is a key parameter in the ranking system. “Though our current faculty strength of 200 is comparable to other institutes having similar student strength, only 124 of our faculty members were considered for NIRF 2024. This is because, unlike in other institutes, 76 of our faculty members joined after September 2022. But NIRF 2024 considered only those who had taught for at least two semesters by March 2023, when the data for NIRF 2024 was taken,” Karmalkar said.
Course correction
The director said due to the institute’s recruitment policy, the strength of faculty members, who taught for at least two semesters, will jump to 181 — in line for NIRF 2025 consideration — and the year after that to more than 200. This parameter of NIRF will therefore improve significantly.
“Simultaneously, we are working on improving other NIRF parameters such as the number and quality of publications, number of patents, and annual expenditure on research and teaching. For raising the research expenditure, our faculty members are aggressively pursuing more research and consultancy projects of higher value. Further, we are reforming our procedure for equipment purchase, so that more funds get utilised within a year,” said the director.
Karmalkar was optimistic IIT Bhubaneswar’s rank will improve in the coming years due to these and many other measures. “For next year’s ranking, our research and development grants and number of patents have increased by about 250%,” Karmalkar said.
NIT Rourkela Shines!
Amid the poor performance of govt higher education institutions in Odisha in the overall ranking of NIRF 2024, the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela is exceptional. This institute has secured the 34th rank in the overall category of NIRF this year. It secured the 19th rank in the engineering category and found a place in the top 50 institutions of India in the innovation category. It also received the 30th rank in the Research Institutions category.
The national institute has received 50.54 out of 100 in research and professional practice (RP). It has received 2.5 marks out of 15 in intellectual property rights (IPR) compared to zero marks of Utkal University and 0.75 of IIT Bhubaneswar. Its perception index is 17.02 out of 100. This NIT has 410 teachers and a good number of research publications.
IIT Bhubaneswar’s rankings is in stark contrast to that of IIT Hyderabad.Both were established in 2008. In 2017, the Hyderabad-based institute was ranked 26. This year, it has moved up to 12th, showing the rapid strides it has made in these years.
In comparison, IIT Bhubaneswar’s fortunes has slowly gone downhill. In 2018 and 2019, it did manage to improve its rankings to 51 and 46, respectively. It fuelled hope. Then Covid came, and along with it the downward spiral.
From 56th in 2020, it slipped two places in the rankings next year which became 65th in 2022 and 91st last year. This year was even worse, as it was ranked in the 101-150 bracket.
The malaise seems to be everywhere. In engineering, IIT Bhubaneswar secured 54th rank with a score of 52.54, whereas IIT Hyderabad stood eighth with 71.55. IIT Bhubaneswar could not even enter the innovation category list, while IIT Hyderabad took the third place.
IIT Bhubaneswar managed to get 35.88 out of 100 in research and professional practice (RP) and 33.72 out of 100 in perception. Compared to it, the Hyderabad institute received 57.5 in RP and 65.31 in perception.
Research and professional practice has five sub-parameters including publications (PU), quality of publications (QP), IPR and patents, and footprint of projects and professional practice (FPPP).
Surprisingly, IIT Bhubaneswar has got just 0.75 out of 15 in IPR and patents, 2.27 out of 10 in FPPP, 16.03 out of 30 in PU, and 16.83 out of 40 in QP.
This shows the institute needs to focus on research work, file patents, publish good research articles, bring both sponsored and consultancy projects as well as improve other parameters.
What ails IITBBS
IIT Bhubaneswar director Shreepad Karmalkar felt all is not lost. He said their overall NIRF score has marginally improved and the perception about IIT Bhubaneswar has risen by 36%. “Moreover, we maintained a UG placement of as high as 86%, whereas some IITs saw a significant decline. Yet our rank dropped,” Karmalkar said, listing two major reasons for it.
Firstly, other institutes improved their score. Secondly, the number of faculty members is a key parameter in the ranking system. “Though our current faculty strength of 200 is comparable to other institutes having similar student strength, only 124 of our faculty members were considered for NIRF 2024. This is because, unlike in other institutes, 76 of our faculty members joined after September 2022. But NIRF 2024 considered only those who had taught for at least two semesters by March 2023, when the data for NIRF 2024 was taken,” Karmalkar said.
Course correction
The director said due to the institute’s recruitment policy, the strength of faculty members, who taught for at least two semesters, will jump to 181 — in line for NIRF 2025 consideration — and the year after that to more than 200. This parameter of NIRF will therefore improve significantly.
“Simultaneously, we are working on improving other NIRF parameters such as the number and quality of publications, number of patents, and annual expenditure on research and teaching. For raising the research expenditure, our faculty members are aggressively pursuing more research and consultancy projects of higher value. Further, we are reforming our procedure for equipment purchase, so that more funds get utilised within a year,” said the director.
Karmalkar was optimistic IIT Bhubaneswar’s rank will improve in the coming years due to these and many other measures. “For next year’s ranking, our research and development grants and number of patents have increased by about 250%,” Karmalkar said.
NIT Rourkela Shines!
Amid the poor performance of govt higher education institutions in Odisha in the overall ranking of NIRF 2024, the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela is exceptional. This institute has secured the 34th rank in the overall category of NIRF this year. It secured the 19th rank in the engineering category and found a place in the top 50 institutions of India in the innovation category. It also received the 30th rank in the Research Institutions category.
The national institute has received 50.54 out of 100 in research and professional practice (RP). It has received 2.5 marks out of 15 in intellectual property rights (IPR) compared to zero marks of Utkal University and 0.75 of IIT Bhubaneswar. Its perception index is 17.02 out of 100. This NIT has 410 teachers and a good number of research publications.
