Manipal rated best Pharmacy college in India by HRD Ministry

Manipal: Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal (MCOPS) was ranked top pharmacy college in the country by the National Institutional Ranking Framework(NIRF) released by Union Human Resource Development Minister SmritiIrani on Monday at VigyanBhawan in New Delhi. This first-of-its-kind indigenous ranking framework for higher education institutions has ranked institutes in Engineering, Management and Pharmacy.

DrMallikarjuna Rao, Principal of the College said "It is a dream come true for us and a befitting reward for 53 years of hard work". He said that it was because of the hard work done by his predecessors and credited the immediate past principal, Dr N Udupa for his contribution. "The quantum of research done during the 16 years he was the principal is worthy of praise, "Dr Rao said.

Talking about the research work, Dr Rao said MCOPS id number one base on Scopus output. "Our 'h' index is 46 and our average citation per paper is 10.7. The total citations as on date is 11, 707 and the total publication 1089 till today. "Interestingly, these figures are far better than that in the rest of the country," he says. The national average is 7, and the national average for China is 7.44. For US it is 23.36. "That means Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences has an average which is higher than that of the country and even China," Dr Rao added.

Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal first, University institute of pharmaceutical sciences –Chandigarh second and JamiaHamdard, New Delhi third. All 122 centrally-funded institutions — including all central universities, IITs and IIMs — participated in the first round of ranking. The framework is primarily divided into two categories: Category 'A' covered institutions with academic autonomy and a greater focus on research and category 'B' comprised colleges and centres affiliated to a university and more focused on teaching. An institution can volunteer to be ranked in both categories. The new ranking framework has been drafted to provide an Indian context to educational aspirations and needs.

As per the NIRF, ten best institutions have been named in each stream and Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal was declared the best in Pharmacy. "There are over a thousand pharmacy colleges in the country and to be chosen as the finest is a great honour indeed,"said Manipal University, ManipalVice Chancellor, Dr H Vinod Bhat. "I am delighted to know that Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences has been ranked the best in the country. My heartiest congratulations to the entire MCOPS team for this impressive performance. This is only the beginning of the journey and I expect MCOPS to be rated among the best in the world in the next five years".

"Our emphasis has always been on research and more so recently. Our Pharmacy College is one of the best research centres in the University and I am proud of the work they are doing. I am sure they will continue to do better. This ranking by the HRD Ministry means a lot, and will definitely act as a catalyst for faculty and students to do better to scale greater heights,"Dr Bhat said".