University Grant Commission (UGC) Chairman Prof DP Singh on Thursday said that rankings of educational institutions play an important role to promote quality education and provide institutions with a chance to introspect.
His remark came after Union Minister of Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' released "India Rankings 2020" of Institutions of Higher Education today in various categories on the basis of their performance on five broad categories of parameters.
"India Rankings have been announced itself by the HRD Minister. Rankings play an important role in the promotion of quality education. It provides an opportunity to the institutions to introspect the quality innovation, research and other parameters," Singh told .
Singh said that the UGC will encourage online education in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.
"After this lockdown, we are planning that social distancing must be ensured in education institutions after they re-open. We have thought of two things - one is related to increasing online contents up to 40 per cent. It means all higher education institutions in large numbers can adopt up to 40 per cent online," the UGC chairman said.
"It means at a given point of time large number of students have their teaching, learning through online management and remaining can come to colleges and universities," he said.
Singh said that universities can devise some mechsm and guidelines after they re-open such as adhering to social distancing. "Safety of students and staff will be given priority in guidelines," he said.
IIT Madras retained the first position in the overall ranking as well as in Engineering while Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru tops University list.
IIM Ahmedabad tops in Management Category, AIIMS bagged the top slot in Medical category for the third consecutive year, Miranda College retained the first position among colleges for the third consecutive year. Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences, Delhi secured the first position in the Dental category.
Speaking on the occasion, the HRD Minister said that these rankings act as a guide to students for selection of universities based on a set of criteria and helps universities to improve their performance on various ranking parameters and identify gaps in research and areas of improvement.
He added that the Ranking of Institutions at national level instil a competitive spirit amongst institutions to perform better and secure a higher rank in the international ranking.
( With inputs from ANI )