Faculty strength with PhDs concentrated in top 100 institutions: Ministry of Education

New Delhi: The faculty strength with doctoral qualification is concentrated in top 100 institutions while the remaining institutions have fewer faculty with doctoral degree, according to the Ministry of Education.

As per the ministry's analysis for the eighth edition of National Institution of Ranking Framework (NIRF), the issue of less faculty members with doctoral degree is a serious "handicap" since mentorship received during the doctoral training can play a vital role in preparing the faculty for a teaching career in higher education.

According to the analysis, faculty with PhD in top 100 institutions vary from a minimum of 61.06 per cent in case of colleges to the maximum of 91.60 per cent in case of management institutions.

Whereas faculty with PhD in the remaining institutions vary from a minimum of 33.27 per cent in case of pharmacy institutions to the maximum of 64.29 per cent in case of universities.

Moreover, average number of faculty in top 100 institutions vary from a minimum of 34 and 46 in case of pharmacy and management to the maximum of 685 and 645 in case of universities and overall categories, respectively, as opposed to a minimum of 15 and 25 in case of management and pharmacy to the maximum of 242 and 162 in case of universities and overall categories, respectively.

According to the ministry's report said, "Engineering education has witnessed a phenomenal growth in India in past two decades with thousands of engineering institutions, in private sector as well as in government sector, coming-up in almost all parts of the country. As such, discipline of engineering is selected for analysis of faculty data to get a bigger picture of higher education institutions in India."

"The discipline is also undergoing a major challenge in terms of quality and employability of its graduates," it added.

However, only 44.51 per cent engineering faculty have doctoral qualifications while over 55 per cent faculty members have a master's degree.

The eighth edition of NIRF was launched by Union Minister of Education for State Rajkumar Ranjan Singh on Monday.

The ranking framework evaluates institutions on five broad generic groups of parameters of teaching, learning and resources, research and professional practice, graduation outcomes, outreach and inclusivity and perception.

Ranks are assigned based on the total sum of marks assigned for each of these five broad groups of parameters.

While from 2023, a new subject "Agriculture and Allied Sectors" has been introduced in NIRF, the "innovation" ranking previously executed by the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) has been integrated into NIRF with an aim to reduce the burden on institutions of providing similar data to two different agencies.

With the addition of the new category (innovation) subject domain (agriculture and allied sectors) and expansion of "Architecture" to "Architecture and Planning", the existing portfolio of India Rankings has increased to 13 categories and subject domains.