Tag: ranking

NIRF 2020 Results Announced

IIT Kharagpur has been ranked in the widest category of disciplines ranging from Engineering, Architecture, Management, Law in the NIRF Rankings 2020 by the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India. While the Institute has been ranked the best in India in the category of Architecture, it has jumped one rank in the management discipline to be among the top five business schools in India. 

In Law it retains last year’s rank at the 4th position along with the overall and Engineering ranks at the 5th position. 

The Dept. of Architecture has been a clear winner in the areas of Graduation Outcomes, Peer Perception, and Outreach and Inclusivity. The Department has scored the best in the country in the metrics for University Examinations and Number of Ph.D. Students Graduated. 

Vinod Gupta School of Management, the business school of IIT Kharagpur has performed exceptionally well in the areas of Research and Professional Practice and Graduation Outcomes, while the law school which is one of its kind focussing typically on intellectual property law scores high on Teaching, Learning & Resources and Research and Professional Practice. 

Earlier this year Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur identified  institutional ranking as a thrust area. Dwelling on the issue of institutional ranking Director Tewari said,

“Our goal should be to compete with the top ten universities in the world to climb the ladder of global ranking. However, institutional ranking is a sum reflection of holistic performance and impact created by any higher educational institution. The past Directors’ advisory group will engage extensively towards this goal.”

Vinod Gupta who patronized both the management and law schools and initiated the disciplines in the IIT system calls it a remarkable achievement and the overall excellence of the academic, research and graduate outcome culture at IIT Kharagpur. He said,

“In my view the student intake largely with Engineering and Science backgrounds enable them to focus more on analytical skills in research and other projects which gives them the edge over other schools. Additionally, being part of the IIT KGP system the schools have successfully attracted best-in-class teaching faculty. This leads to the overall success of the schools.”

Fastest Climb in QS Ranks

IIT Kharagpur has emerged as the fastest rising higher educational institution in the QS World University Rankings 2020. The Institute has climbed 14 places to 281 this year from 295 in 2019, 308 in 2018 and 313 in 2017. This is the highest rate of improvement for top-ranked Indian Institutions.

“The Institute has steadily moved up the QS Rankings year after year, thanks to the wonderful performance of its faculty, students, staff, alumni and tremendous support of government and partners. Grateful to Secretary (HE) MHRD for acknowledging our consistent and speedy improvement,” said Director Prof. P P Chakrabarti.

R. Subrahmanyam, IAS, 1985, Education Secretary, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt of India, had earlier tweeted congratulating the Institute for its swift rise in the QS World Ranking 2020 stating it as one of the fastest rising institutions in the world rankings. He also tagged the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of HRD Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in the tweet.

 

QS WUR of IIT KGP https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/indian-institute-technology-kharagpur-iit-kgp#wurs

This is the highest ever QS rank achieved by the Institute since it participated the first time in 2012.

“The Institute has maintained a healthy balance between undergraduate and postgraduate students and the ratio of full-time equivalent faculty and students. This was furthered by the remarkable career performance of the recent graduates of the Institute along with the impact of the research projects undertaken by the faculty,” said Prof. M K Tiwari, Dean, Planning & Coordination who heads the initiative of institutional ranking.

The Institute has recently topped in the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking in India.

 

Feathers in the Cap

Careers 360    India Education Diary

IIT Kharagpur has emerged among the country’s best and as the only IIT to qualify and excel in four disciplines – Architecture (1st), Engineering (4th), Law (4th) and Management (6th), taking on specialized schools in their domains.

Speaking about the feat of excelling in non-engineering categories, Director Prof. P P Chakrabarti emphasised on the uniqueness of each of these specialized disciplines within the IIT system.

“While there are specialized institutions in these subject areas, being part of IIT Kharagpur has catapulted the growth of these disciplines in a matter of a few decades due to the convergence culture of IIT Kharagpur typically focusing on research, multidisciplinary academics and overall career development of students enabling a unique symbiotic approach to excellence.”

IIT Kharagpur is leading in ‘Research and Professional Practice’ and ‘Graduate Outcome’ in the categories of Architecture, Law and Management while holding a competitive rank in Engineering.

“Our research publications and citations are extremely high domestically as evident from Scopus and SCI. However, there is a need for transforming research into industrial and consumer applications. In recent times we have undertaken several initiatives in the forms of Centres of Excellence which are focused towards technology development for industry and giving a thrust to the startup culture,” he said.

The Institute has launched centres of excellence and undertaken projects of national importance in six thrust areas which include Advanced Manufacturing, Intelligent and Smart Transportation, Affordable Healthcare, Digital Convergence, Innovative Infrastructure and Geoscience for Future of Earth with support from the government and industry. The research collaboration and impact thereof can be witnessed across various engineering and other disciplines such as management, law, social sciences, architecture etc.

Also, the multidisciplinary approach has led to specialized thrust areas in academics which is flexible and unique. The course design and curricula of the programs above deliver the country’s crème graduates leading to the best-in-class graduate outcomes.

“Focus on the integrated and growth-oriented strategy adopted by IIT Kharagpur has enabled us to sustain our top position while keeping the societal and industrial needs in mind in launching new courses and also massively using our alumni resources,” says Dean, Planning & Coordination Prof. M K Tiwari.

The Department of Architecture and Regional Planning clearly exhibits this trait with its key area of regional planning addressing the diverse regional planning needs of a country like India which are more in the lines of a subcontinent with intermittent regions within her cities, townships and villages, opines Prof. Joy Sen, Head of the department, who himself is a well-known Regional Planner.

“We focus on regional sciences, regional econometrics and regional programming which enable us to develop inclusive and innovative regional planning models,” remarks Prof. Joy Sen.

Similar is the case with the Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law at IIT Kharagpur which has carved its excellence in the domain of Intellectual Property law while successfully running LLB with specialization in IP, LLM and Doctoral programs.

“I do see a lot of interest in students to take up courses like AI and Law, Energy Law, IP Management, IP and Competition Law, Law of the Sea, Information Technology Law to name a few,” says Prof. Padmavati Manchikanti, Dean of the School. “In fact, some of the thrust areas of the School, AI and Law, Biodiversity Law, Energy Law, Energy Policy and Governance, are unique in the country,” she adds.

Prof. Prabina Rajib, Dean of Vinod Gupta School of Management which has been ranked 6th following the top 5 IIMs, emphasized at the interdisciplinary elective courses in engineering, science and mathematics offered by other departments, centres and schools at IIT Kharagpur. This sharpens their interdisciplinary knowledge and capability as efficient managers.

“Our students are mostly from engineering background and their career path follows a direction more oriented towards technology management. Keeping in line with the industry needs, we have introduced many new electives in Business Analytics area and also offer electives in emerging topics like Artificial Intelligence and Business Law, Internet of Things Cyber Security, Intellectual Property Rights ,” says Prof. Prabina.

The teaching, learning and resources parameter has been affected in this year’s NIRF rank as well, acknowledges the Director. However, he indicated this has more to do with the high number of students at IIT Kharagpur which has the largest number of academic disciplines with 19 departments, 12 schools and 17 centres of excellence.

“We are further working on recruiting more faculty which will also accelerate up our research initiatives. In the past three years, more than a hundred faculty members have been inducted in the system,” he added.