By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) maintained its position as the 20th best in the country and highest ranked in Odisha in the university category as the rankings in different categories of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) for 2021 were released on Thursday.
SOA, which was granted Deemed to be University status in 2007, was placed in the 20th position in the NIRF 2020 rankings as well and now has been ranked among the top 25 universities in the country for the sixth consecutive occasion since the NIRF rankings were introduced by the Ministry of Education in 2016.
The rankings were released in a virtual program in New Delhi by the Union minister for Education Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan.
Registering improvement, SOA moved to 37th rank in the country from 38th last year in the overall category while in engineering and technology category it was placed 32nd this year moving up two spots from 34th in 2020. In the category for medical colleges, SOA had moved to 21st this year (23rd last year) improving two places. In dental category, SOA was placed 14th in the country this year.
SOA continues to be the top institution in Odisha in the overall category as also in medical and dental categories. In engineering, it was placed third in the state behind National Institute of Technology, Rourkela and Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar.
Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER) is SOA’s faculty of engineering and technology while Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital and Institute of Dental Sciences are the Deemed to be University’s faculty of medical sciences and dental sciences.
The NIRF rankings were based on different parameters including teaching and learning resources, research and professional practice, graduation outcome, outreach and inclusivity and perception.
The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) had re-accredited SOA with the highest grade while programs of its faculty of engineering and technology have been accredited by the prestigious Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), USA.
Nine different institutions function under the SOA umbrella offering 95 academic programs in engineering and technology, medical sciences, dental sciences, management sciences, hospital administration, pharmaceutical sciences, biotechnology, nursing, hospitality and tourism management, legal studies and agricultural sciences.
SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof. Ashok Kumar Mahapatra congratulated the Deans, faculty members, researchers and other employees of the university for their dedicated effort which had earned the university a prestigious rank nationally.
