NIRF ranking exposes Bihar’s higher education truth

None of the state universities or colleges figure in the overall list of top 100 institutions. The only institution that figures in the overall list is IIT, Patna, ranked 54th. It is ranked 26th among the top 100 engineering colleges, a big drop since 2016 when it was ranked 10th in the country.

The ranking of institutions across the country released on Thursday by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is a reality check for Bihar institutions of higher learning and an indicator of the reasons behind mass exodus of students outside state in search of better education.

Representational image.(HT file)

None of the state universities or colleges figure in the overall list of top 100 institutions. The only institution that figures in the overall list is IIT, Patna, ranked 54th. It is ranked 26th among the top 100 engineering colleges, a big drop since 2016 when it was ranked 10th in the country. Even in 2019, it was ranked 22nd.

The only other institution in the top 100 list of engineering colleges is the NIT, Patna, ranked 92nd, though it is not in overall list of 100 top institutions. It was ranked 87th in 2016.

There is no medical college from Bihar in the list of top 40 colleges of the country. In the list of law colleges also, none from the Bihar finds place.

However, the biggest let down, though not expected after poor showing in the accreditation by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), has been that there is no state university or college in the list anywhere.

Last year, the 156-year old Patna College, the oldest institution under once revered Patna University, was ranked ‘C’, with an abysmal CGPA of 1.62, another premiere institution Patna Science College, set up in 1927, barely managed just a shade better, ranked ‘B’ by NAAC with just 2.16 CGPA.

With Bihar, the biggest stumbling block has been lukewarm response to participation of the state institutions in the NIRF ranking process as well as annual web-based All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE). Very few institutions participate in it due to the fear of not doing well, as they suffer from some serious handicaps.

The 2015-16 AISHE, conducted by the MHRD, had ranked Bihar at the bottom, with lowest college and university density, high enrollment despite highly adverse teacher-pupil ratio and a gross enrollment ratio (GER) of just 12.9.

The AISHE 2018-19 had put the college density, i.e. the number of colleges per lakh eligible population (population in the age-group 18-23 years) at just 7 in Bihar, while it was 53 in Karnataka as compared to all India average of 28.

As per AISHE 2018-19, the parent-teacher ratio (PTR) in Bihar was also found to be over 50 compared to the all India average of 26 taking into consideration regular enrollments only.