Page 57 - EW April 2025

Institute of Science, Bangalore).
In Indian industry and commerce
it’s commonly accepted that BITS-
Pilani is on a par with the best IITs.
However in the Union education
ministry’s NIRF Rankings 2024,
BITS-Pilani is ranked #20 among
engineering colleges and #19 among
universities.
The low rank awarded to BITS-
Pilani in NIRF rankings has been
repeatedly criticised by your editors
(NB. Neither BITS-Pilani nor the
tight-fisted Birla Group advertise in
EW) as indicative of flawed NIRF
methodology based on institutional
self-assessment. On March 27, 2025,
in response to a PIL (public interest
VIT students: unresponsive #2 litigation) writ, the Madurai Bench
of the Madras high court issued a
ployable graduates of India’s 4,500 & NITs from the annual EWIHER stay order on the ministry publishing
engineering colleges and universities and rank only private engineering NIRF 2025. The PIL alleged “data
is likely to decline from 45 percent institutions. Since then we have been manipulation and lack of transpar-
currently to 10-15 percent in the near ranking private engineering colleges/ ency in the NIRF ranking process”.
future. Media reports indicate that institutions and private engineering Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, an
up to 40-45 percent graduates of universities separately, even though alum of IIT-Bombay and Universitat
even the best of India’s 23 globally some private engineering institutions der Bundeswehr, Munich (Germany)
famous IITs (Indian Institutes of awarded deemed university status and former director of IIT-Delhi,
Technology) are struggling to land are listed in both league tables. who took charge as Vice Chancel-
jobs commensurate with remunera- Against this backdrop, it’s unsur- lor of BITS-Pilani which has an
tion expectation. prising that for the past three years aggregate 18,000 students mentored
Aware of the deep divide be- the Birla Institute of Technol- by 470 faculty in 2002, prefers not
tween the academy and industry ogy & Science, Pilani, generously to comment on this premier engi-
and to contribute towards bridging endowed by G.D. Birla (1894-1983) neering university’s NIRF ranking.
it, in 2013, your editors introduced founder of the still-going-strong However he is not surprised that
the EducationWorld India Higher Birla business empire (market valu- varying EW sample respondents
Education Rankings (EWIHER) with ation: Rs. 8.5 lakh crore), has been have ranked BITS-Pilani India’s #1
the objective of enabling parents and ranked India’s #1 private engineer- private engineering university for the
students to shortlist, if not select, ing and technology university. past three years, and this year as well
the country’s most suitable higher Since it was registered in 1946 with top scores under eight of the 10
education institutions — public and and conferred deemed university EW parameters of higher education
private universities according to sub- status in 1964, BITS-Pilani has es- excellence.
ject specialisation; undergrad Arts, tablished five campuses equipped “Among knowledgeable academ-
Science and Commerce Colleges; with state-of-the-art infrastructure ics and within the students com-
B-schools and higher ed institutes in in Mohali, Goa, Hyderabad, Mumbai munity — every year 215,000 higher
other categories. and Dubai with an aggregate enroll- secondary school-leavers and college
After a few years of ranking ment of 18,000 students mentored graduates write the BITS-Pilani en-
government-promoted IIT and NITs by 470 faculty. Prominent alumni trance exam of whom 3,500 are ad-
that were dominating the EW — and include Sanjay Mehrotra (co-founder mitted — and in India’s top-ranked
all other media — league tables, and Sansdisk and CEO Micron Tech- companies, it’s common knowledge
also because they admit a mere 2-3 nology); Sabir Bhatia (co-founder that BITS-Pilani introduced its inte-
percent of 1.2-1.5 million aspiring Hotmail); Baba Kalyani (promoter grated workplace experience under
engineers who write the annual Joint Bharat Forge); Hari Menon (Co- its practice schools programmes over
Entrance Exam, in 2016 your editors founder & CEO Big Basket) and Dr. five decades ago with final year stu-
took the decision to eliminate IITs Govind Rangarajan (Director Indian dents acquiring hands-on industry

APRIL 2025 EDUCATIONWORLD 57