Bhubaneswar: Adding another feather to its cap, the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) Deemed to be University has featured in the Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2020.
The Bhubaneswar-based institute has been placed in the 1001 plus category in the ranking this year in its first attempt.
The rankings have been prepared based on five broad set of indicators representing key areas in higher education excellence. The parameters are – Teaching (the learning environment), Research (volume, income and reputation), Citations (research influence), Industry Income (knowledge transfer) and International Outlook (international staff, students and research collaborations).
SOA has been placed in the 1001 plus category along with other reputed Indian universities, including Amity University, Andhra University, Anna University, Annamalai University, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Delhi Technological University, KIIT University, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, University of Mumbai, University of Mysore, Sastra University and SRM Institute of Science and Technology.
SOA has been placed 24th in the university category in India in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking in 2019 while the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, its faculty of medical sciences, and Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), its faculty of engineering, were placed 21st and 32nd respectively.
Earlier in July this year, SOA has been ranked 15th among the top 50 Deemed to be Universities in the country in the latest Outlook-ICARE India University rankings for 2019, making it the highest ranked such university in Odisha.
The SOA was also conferred with the EduShine Excellence Award after being adjudged the ‘Most Preferred Private University of the Year in the East’ at the 12th Assocham National Education Summit 2019 held in New Delhi in February this year.
Focused on quality academics and research, SOA has been churning out professionals in varied fields ready for the challenges and needs of different industries. It has identified 18 thrust areas for promotion of research and set up 13 research and field centers besides 37 research labs. It has 58 post-graduate programs.
SOA offers 16 Under-Graduate and 73 Post-Graduate, Ph.D. and Post-Doctoral programs in engineering and technology, medicine, dental sciences, management sciences, hospitality and tourism management, hospital administration, nursing, pharmaceutical sciences, biotechnology, legal studies and agriculture.
SoA’s President Prof. (Dr.) Manojranjan Nayak, an educationalist and a humanist envisioned the need of contemporary branches of professional education and research in the country and played an instrumental in making a sea change in delivering quality technical education in the country.
Dr.Nayak said that the university has been striving to do better in all areas and efforts to excel will continue.