Manipal, Visvesvaraya Universities top Karnataka ratings

Manipal University has been rated first in innovation and research quality while Visvesvaraya Technological University tops in the improvement in research category, in a new comprehensive assessment of all universities in Karnataka.

The Karnataka State Higher Education Council (KSHEC) on Friday released the inaugural edition of the Karnataka State Universities Rating Framework (KSURF), which is a detailed audit and evaluation of all the state, private and deemed universities in the state.

In the established universities category, Gulbarga University was rated at the top for research productivity, Bangalore University for research citations and KLE University for industrial memorandum of understandings.

In the young universities category, JSS University and NITTE University score high in teaching excellence and international diversity.

Among the universities established in the last five years, M.S. Ramaiah University has been rated very high on patents, PES University for domestic diversity, Reva University on infrastructure.

In the specialist university category, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, is rated at the top for inclusiveness and social impact whereas Kannada University and University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, score high on the faculty with Ph.D parameter.

"The assessment of universities will help Karnataka government to prepare a plan for providing infrastructure for the state government universities. It will help the students to select good and efficient universities for higher studies," state Minister for Higher Education Basavaraj Rayaraddi told reporters here.

In an effort similar to the Central government's National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), Karnataka is the first state in the country to undertake a detailed evaluation of the universities.

"We have engaged ICARE Ratings, the research and analysis division of the Indian Centre for Academic Rankings and Excellence. The work began in last July. There are 51 universities in Karnataka, of which around 40 universities were assessed. Twelve universities are yet to submit the required documents for assessment," Executive Director of KSHEC S.A. Kori said.

The KSHEC would annually rate universities under regionally-relevant yet globally-flavoured parameters such as research excellence, innovation, teaching excellence, employability, infrastructure, inclusiveness and social impact.

--IANS

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