NIT Silchar tops in NE in THE Asia University Ranking

Silchar, Jun 12
National Institute of Technology (NIT) Silchar is the highest placed educational Institute of the North East India in Times Higher Education (THE) Asia University Rankings 2021.
It has been ranked in between 201-250 in the recently declared list of THE Asia. The only other University from Assam amongst the top 500 in the list is Tezpur University, which is ranked between 301-350. This is the first time that NIT Silchar has managed to get a place in the list. The educational institute is also gradually rising in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), currently placed 46th there.
From Indian perspective, NIT Silchar is ranked 19 among 63 universities mentioned in Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2021. It is having same rank with 9 Indian Universities, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, NIT Rourkela, IISER Bhopal, Delhi University, Delhi Technological University, Jadavpur University, Aligarh Muslim University, and Jamia Hamdard University.
NIT Silchar is one of the 31 NITs in India which was established in 1967 as a Regional Engineering College in Silchar. In 2002, it was upgraded to the status of National Institute of Technology and was declared as Institute of National Importance under the National Institutes of Technology Act, 2007.
The Director of NIT Silchar, Prof Sivaji Bandopadhyay joined NIT Silchar four years back. He started working on factors which can influence the ranking because he believes that with high rank, they can attract students from across the country.
He said, "It is important to improve perception about our Institute amongst the best quality students in the country. With higher rank, it is easier to get attention. NIRF ranking started in 2016 and we were in top 100 in engineering institute category from the beginning. We started working on various factors which can influence the overall ranking. In 2018 our Institute was ranked 57th in engineering category. Next year we improved to get 51st place and last year we managed to enter in top 50. Apart from that, last year NIT Silchar also came inside NIRF's top-100 in overall ranking. After that we started participating in international rankings and it was amongst top-1000 global educational Institutes in Times ranking last year. We also managed to get mentioned in so many other rankings across globe, which is helping us to improve the perception."
He thanked all faculty members, scholars, students and all staff members for their contributions which according to him has helped the institute to achieve such a milestone.
"High rank in prestigious Times reflects our strong research outcome, citation profile, and impact by our students and faculty members at NIT Silchar. This is a remarkable achievement for NIT Silchar to have received such a high global ranking based on our Engineering programs with respect to other general universities having many general and Engineering programs. For us, this is just beginning, our plan is to go higher and achieve more such milestones. Our research base is getting stronger and we are collaborating with many other universities to uplift our standard." The Registrar of the NIT Silchar, Dr Nalin Behari Dev Chaudhury feels it is the vision of Prof. Sivaji Bandopadhyay which is helping this Institute to achieve such milestones.
He said, "NIT Silchar is one of the finest engineering institutes in North East India. We were happy with this achievement but director Sivaji Bandopadhyay loves to dream bigger. First he wanted to improve the research and perception part. We started working on inovation, academic excellence, campus placement and overall upliftment of the institution. In last 4 years, NIT Silchar has kept on improving its rank every year. We have bought a lot of equipment which are world-class and thereby helped our students and scholars in doing research work of high quality.
"He has inspired the scholars to think bigger, helped them to choose quality research and to do their best. This achievement is a result of the collective effort of faculty members, students, research scholars, all staff members and the administration for their motivated work. But the mission was guided by our Director Dr Sivaji Bandopadhyay," he added.
Assam Education Minister Dr Ranoj Pegu paid a visit to NIT Silchar yesterday and discussed with the Director about infrastructure development of the institute.
Hindustan Times