NIRF rankings: JU officiating VC expresses happiness

Kolkata: Jadavpur University’s officiating Vice-Chancellor Amitabha Datta on Tuesday said he was happy with the institute for retaining the fourth spot among universities in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings.

He said this has been made possible because of the continued pursuit of excellence by the faculty, students and researchers of the premier higher educational institution.

Datta told PTI that holding on to the fourth position for the second year in a row was a big achievement since JU is a state university and receives less central funds than the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, among others.

"All the stakeholders - from the faculty to non-teaching staff, from the administration to students - have made it possible," he said.

Datta said among engineering institutes, JU bagged the 10th rank in NIRF rankings. "Being a state university, we are among the Top 10 engineering institutes in the country. This is a matter of pride for everyone," he said.

Datta recalled that former VC Suranjan Das had been rooting for more funds for the institute and played a key role in facilitating the involvement of the alumni association in mobilising funds for the institute.

"We must thank our alumni, who are now spread across the world, for coming to the aid of the university," he said.

Calcutta University (CU) slipped from 8th to 12th position in the Top 100 universities list.

Pro-VC Asis Chatterjee told PTI, "We have to strive harder and improve our performance in research activities in the coming days." He said the CU will examine and evaluate the reasons for falling in the rankings.

In the list of overall category (both universities and higher educational institutions), IIT Kharagpur bagged the 7th rank, JU 13th and CU 23rd.

NIRF rankings are done on the basis of parameters including teaching, learning and resources, research and professional practice and perception, among others.