Karnataka rankings: Manipal Academy, PES University clinch top spot

Bengaluru: Continuing its reign at the top, Manipal Academy of Higher Education was ranked 1 among the state’s established universities in Karnataka State Universities Rating Framework.

Under the young universities (5-10 years) category, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research occupied the top spot.

PES University topped the list of new universities (under 5 years) and University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, stood at the first place among specialist varsities. The rankings were released by Karnataka State Higher Education Council, department of higher education, on Tuesday.

As many as 43 universities had registered with the council for the annual rankings, which were analysed and compiled by ICARE ratings, the research and analysis division of Indian Centre for Academic Rankings and Excellence. The varsities were assessed on research (20%), innovation (10%), teaching (30%), employability (20%), inclusiveness (10%) and inclusion of socially underprivileged (10%).

To avoid the apple to orange comparison, the universities were divided according to their year of inception and type. Under the established universities’ list, MAHE was followed by KLE University, Kuvempu University, Karnatak University and VTU. Among young universities, Jain University, NITTE University, Yenepoya University and Christ were in the top five after JSS, Mysuru. Eight private institutions dominated the new universities’ list, which included PES, MS Ramaiah, Reva, Dayananda Sagar and KLE Technological University. UAS Dharwad, UAS Bengaluru, Karnataka Veterinary Animal and Fisheries Sciences University, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana and University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga were the top five among specialist universities.

Karnataka was the first state to start the annual rankings of universities, which was later emulated by the Centre with the National Institutional Ranking Framework in 2015. “Rankings are important because unless you start measuring, you don’t get things done. While in the first year of NIRF, Karnataka had five universities in the top 100, the number has doubled to 10 today. There are another 16 universities from the state in the top 200,” said SV Ranganath, vice- chairman of Karnataka State Higher Education Council.

Releasing the report, higher education minister CN Ashwath Narayan stressed the need for improving the quality of higher education with greater employability and social impact. When asked why none of the public universities featured on top, he said: “The rankings will be in the public domain and will be under scrutiny. We will look into the issue.”

Best performers across categories

Established universities

1. Manipal Academy of Higher Education

2. KLE University

3. Kuvempu University

4. Karnatak University

5. VTU

Young universities

1. JSS Academy, Mysuru

2. Jain University

3. NITTE University

4. Yenepoya University

5. Christ (deemed-to-be university)

New universities

1. PES University

2. MS Ramaiah University

3. Reva University

4. Dayananda Sagar University

5. KLE Technology University

Specialist universities

1. University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad

2. UAS Bengaluru

3. Karnataka Veterinary Animal and Fisheries Sciences University

4. SVYASA

5. University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga