Bhubaneswar, June 18: The ranking of Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan University (SOA) in Odisha has soared to 16th, a jump of ten places, after the revised rankings of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), developed by the Ministry of HRD, were announced on Friday. In the initial ranking of top 100 universities in the country, announced in April last, SOA University had been placed in the 26th position.
NIRF had scrutinized the Universities employing five basic parameters of Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR), Research Productivity ((RPC), Graduation Outcome (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI) and Perception. SOA University’s ranking improved after NIRF re-evaluated its parameters pertaining to research publications which had been inadvertently not taken into account earlier.
SOA University has been listed in the new ranking as 16A fractionally ahead of King Georges Medical University, Lucknow, which was ranked 16. Recently re-accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with ‘A’ Grade, SOA University had come into existence on July 17, 2007 when the Ministry of HRD conferred on it the status of a Deemed to be University under section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956. The University, known for its focus on research and quality academics with a student base of over 10,000, has identified 18 thrust areas for promoting research and set up 10 research and field centers besides 29 research labs. It has 58 post graduate programs.
Courses offered by the University include, besides engineering and medicine, dental sciences, management sciences, hospitality and tourism management, hospital administration, nursing, pharmaceutical sciences, biotechnology, legal studies and agriculture.
