Against the backdrop of Indian engineering education set to experience a revival and overdue contemporisation of curriculums, EducationWorld presents its EW India Private Engineering Institutes Rankings 2023-24, to enable higher secondary school-leavers to pick and choose the most aptitudinally suitable private colleges for undergrad engineering education , writes Summiya Yasmeen

 

There’s good news for aspiring engineering students in India. The Delhi-based All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the apex regulatory organisation for all engineering and technical institutions countrywide, has lifted the moratorium on promotion of new engineering colleges following a two-year ban. In its new Approval Process Handbook 2023-24 released on March 23, the council states: “Moratorium for establishing new institution(s) in engineering and technology has been lifted from AY (academic year) 2023-24. However, for establishing a new institution in engineering and technology, preference shall be given to the applicant offering courses in multi-disciplinary area in-line with NEP (National Education Policy) 2020 in STEM.” Moreover, the council has also relaxed land eligibility norms for greenfield institutions.

The backstory of the two-year moratorium is that in 2019, an expert committee had advised AICTE to impose a moratorium on promotion of greenfield engineering colleges from the academic year 2020-21 due to declining student admissions. Admission applications in the country’s 3,415 engineering colleges had declined from 2.6 million in 2012-13 to 2.3 million in 2021-22.

Three years later, another expert committee headed by the director of IIT-Bhubaneswar, has advised AICTE to lift the ban citing an increase in “admission percentage in engineering courses” in 2022-23. In its new approval guidelines, the council has mandated greenfield colleges to offer at least

one study programme in emerging areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning in addition to core engineering subjects. In sum, civil, mechanical and electrical programmes apart, new engineering colleges will be obliged to provide cutting edge electives to students. The recently promoted private Plaksha University (estb.2021) offers a good example of the type of inter-disciplinary electives greenfield engineering colleges will be expected to provide. It offers computer science and artificial intelligence, cyber security systems, bio-systems engineering and data sciences, economics and business.

Against this backdrop of Indian engineering education set to experience a revival and overdue contemporisation of curriculums, EducationWorld presents its EW India Private Engineering Institutes Rankings 2023-24 to enable higher secondary school-leavers to pick and choose the most aptitudinally suitable private colleges for undergrad engineering education.

It’s important to highlight that since 2016, EducationWorld has been excluding the heavily subsidised and routinely top-ranked Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs), preferring to evaluate and rank the country’s Top 100 private engineering colleges to enable 98 percent of students who aren’t among the 2 percent who top the IIT-JEE and make it into the country’s 23 IITs and 31 NITs. Our focus is on aiding and enabling this 98 percent to choose the most suitable among private engineering colleges, some of which are rapidly closing the IITs/NITs versus the rest gap.

To compile the EW India Private Engineering Institutes Rankings (EWIPEIR) 2023-24, field personnel of the Delhi-based Centre for Forecasting and Research Pvt. Ltd (C fore, estb.2000), our trusted partner ab initio — which also conducts our pioneer annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (estb.2007) and EW India Preschool Rankings (2010) — interviewed 1,213 engineering college faculty, 1,366 final year students and 446 industry representatives countrywide.

These sample respondents were persuaded to rate engineering colleges (of whom they had sufficient knowledge) on nine parameters of excellence — faculty competence, placement, research and innovation, curriculum and pedagogy (digital readiness), industry interface, value for money, infrastructure, faculty welfare, leadership and governance. The 1-100 scores awarded by respondents under each parameter were totalled to rank the country’s Top 100 private engineering colleges/institutes inter se. “Low-profile institutions assessed by less than 25 respondents are not ranked,” explains Premchand Palety, promoter-CEO of C fore.

There’s a change at the top in EWIPEIR 2023-24. The Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani (estb.1964) has regained its position as India’s #1 private engineering institution/university. Ranked #1 for six consecutive years, BITS-Pilani was dislodged from its top perch by the low-profile International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) and Vellore Institute of Technology, jointly ranked #1 in 2022-23. However this year, C fore’s 3,025 knowledgeable respondents have voted BITS-Pilani India’s #1 private engineering institution with top scores under the parameters of faculty competence, infrastructure, industry interface, research and innovation and leadership/governance quality.

Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, the recently appointed vice chancellor of BITS-Pilani, is delighted that the university, which has campuses in Pilani, Goa, Hyderabad and Mumbai, has reclaimed its “rightful” India #1 position.

“It’s great news that we are back as #1. But I am not surprised that BITS-Pilani is consistently ranked India’s #1 private engineering institution in your rankings survey. We are a 60-year-old institution, a pioneer and leader in engineering education and research, and the country’s most trusted brand in private engineering education. BITS-Pilani pioneered dual degree programmes decades ago and our Practice School programme wherein students work in a company/industry for six months is an innovation many other institutions have emulated. All our 900 faculty have Ph Ds and there’s a 35 percent increase in research input every year. We strongly believe that excellence is a journey and not destination and are committed to continuous improvement,” says Dr. Rao, an alumnus of Kakatiya University, IIT-Bombay and Universitat der Bundeswehr Munich, Germany, former chair professor for nanoelectronics at IIT-Bombay and IIT-Delhi and former director of IIT-Delhi (2016-2021) before taking charge as VC of BITS-Pilani last month (March).

With BITS-Pilani regaining its top ranking, the Top 5 table has undergone a makeover. IIIT-Hyderabad is ranked #2 followed by Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) and Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information & Communication Technology, Gandhinagar jointly ranked #3. Following them are the PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore and Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, Patiala, both of whom have retained last year’s #4 and #5 rankings respectively. The newly promoted (2020) Mahindra University Ecole Centrale School of Engineering, Hyderabad, which debuted last year at #9, has got another huge promotion and is ranked #5 in EWIPEIR 2023-24

Beyond the Top 5, there is minor readjustment of seating in the crowded Top 10 league table of India’s best private engineering institutions. RV College of Engineering, Bengaluru is ranked #6 (#7 in 2022-23) jointly with Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal (#6) followed by BMS College of Engineering, Bengaluru at #7 (#10) jointly with SSN College of Engineering, Kalavakkam, Chennai (#8). Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra and Shiv Nadar University, Dadri are tied at #8 position. The Top 10 table is completed by Hindustan Institute of Technology & Science, Chennai and SASTRA University, Thanjavur, jointly ranked #9 and Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore Campus and PES University, Bengaluru at #10 — all of whom have improved their last year’s rankings.

“We are pleased to learn that RV College of Engineering (RVCE) has retained its India #6 rank and is ranked #1 in Karnataka. I attribute our consistent Top 10 ranking to the sincere and dedicated efforts of our faculty, state-of-the-art infrastructure, excellent placements record, interdisciplinary research culture, and progressive management. Though RVCE has been awarded top scores on several EW survey parameters, it’s especially satisfying to learn of our high score on the industry interface parameter. RVCE is a live hub of industry-academia collaboration. Several companies have set up labs on campus which also hosts a one-of-its-type Entrepreneurship Cell and 24 Centres of Excellence such as Cisco-sponsored Centre of Excellence in the Internet of Things and RVCE-Mercedes Benz Centre for Automotive Mechatronics. Moreover, we have signed more than 100 MoUs and collaborations with companies for student internship programmes. This is also one of the first engineering institutions in Karnataka to implement NEP 2020 and introduce inter-disciplinary courses. Our goal is for RVCE to be ranked among India’s Top 3 engineering institutions,” says Prof. K. N. Subramanya, an alum of Bangalore University and IIT-Madras with over 27 years of teaching, research and consultancy experience, who was appointed principal of RVCE in 2016. Currently, RVCE (estb.1963) has an enrolment of 5,744 students and 358 faculty on its muster rolls.

Likewise, Dr. Anand Jacob Verghese, pro chancellor of the Chennai-based Hindustan Institute of Technology & Science (HITS, estb.1985), is very pleased with this deemed university’s steady rise in the EWIPEIR annual league tables. Ranked #10 in 2021-22 and 2022-23, HITS has been promoted to #9 this year with high scores on the parameters of research and innovation and infrastructure. “It’s an honour to be ranked among India’s Top 10 private engineering institutions for three years consecutively. The vision and strong foundation laid by our founder the late Dr. KCG Verghese has enabled HITS to reach new heights and milestones. The collaborative and inclusive participation of management, faculty, staff and students has been the mantra of our success. I am very happy that your respondents have awarded us highest scores for research and innovation, and infrastructure provision. We have invested over Rs.500 crore in equipping our laboratories with cutting edge instrumentation and equipment to enable faculty and students to conduct hi-tech research. Last year, we established the Centre of Excellence in Space Technology and Centre of Excellence for Underwater Robotics. Our faculty has published 5,000-plus research papers in indexed journals and have been granted 200 patents. Moreover, HITS has also signed several national and international research collaborations with leading universities,” says Dr. Verghese, an alumnus of US International and Huron universities (London) and Dongguk University, Seoul, appointed pro chancellor in 2008. Currently, HITS has 6,500 students and 560 faculty on its muster rolls.

Beyond the Top 10, several institutions have risen impressively in the 179-strong league table of India’s best private engineering institutes. Among them: Alagappa College of Engineering, Chennai to #15 (#21 in 2022-23), ICFAI Tech, Hyderabad to #16 (#27), Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and Engineering (NMIMS Deemed University), Mumbai to #24 (#42), and Vishwakarma Institute of Information Technology, Pune to #27 (#42).

Another highlight of this year’s EWIPEIR is the debut of several previously unranked institutions. Among them: Woxsen University (School of Technology), Hyderabad at #28, Shree Ramchandra College of Engineering, Pune at #66, MCT Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, Mumbai at #72 and Chandigarh Engineering College, Landran, Greater Mohali at #74.

Moreover, it’s important to note that although some colleges are modestly ranked nationally, they are often highly ranked in their host states, some of them more populous than European countries. For instance, Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata, ranked #37 nationally, is West Bengal’s #1 private engineering college. Likewise, Faculty of Engineering, Dr. CV Raman University, Vaishali, ranked India #88 is #1 in Bihar (124 million) and Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, Rohini, ranked #61 is Delhi’s #1 private engineering college.