Aizawl: Pachhunga University College (PUC), the oldest and first post-graduate college in Mizoram, has ranked 45th among the 100 top colleges in the country.

According to the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking 2022 released by Union Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday, PUC has been adjudged as the best college in the Northeastern states as no other colleges in the region could make it to the top 100 list. 

The college scored 56.32 just after Delhi’s Jesus & Mary College, which scored 56.73 (44th rank).

The NIRF ranking put Miranda House affiliated to the University Of Delhi (DU) on the top, while Hindu College (DU) bagged second and Presidency College in Tamil Nadu’s Chennai made it to the third in the NIRF ranking. 

PUC principal expressed happiness for the new achievement, which he attributed to the dedication, hard work and collective efforts of faculty members and the students. 

He said that more efforts would be made to bring the college to a new height. 

Established in 1958, the PUC, which is the lone constituent college of Mizoram University, was provincialised by the Assam Government in 1965.

The college offers undergraduate courses in 23 subject areas of Arts, Science, Commerce and Management and Post Graduate (PG) courses in Mizo, Philosophy, Life Sciences, Geo-Physics and Statistical Mathematics. 

Besides, the college also offers a Ph.D. course in Life Sciences.

The NAAC A+ accredited college located on the eastern fringe of Aizawl has won the ‘Indira Gandhi NSS Awards’ in 2016 for its outstanding contribution to the service of the community at various levels.

The NIRF ranking also showed three universities of Northeast-Gauhati University (Assam)-36th rank, Tezpur University (Assam)- 59th and Mizoram University (Mizoram) 78th among top universities in the country.

The first place in the university category is booked by the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi bagged first in medical, while Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Indian Institute of Technology Madras (Tamil Nadu) occupied the first place in management and engineering respectively.

In the overall ranking, Indian Institute of Technology Madras (Tamil Nadu) bagged the best institute, followed by Indian Institute of Science (Karnataka) and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (Maharashtra). 

The top institutes and universities of India are judged on the basis of different parameters, including Teaching, Learning & Resources (TLR), Research and Professional Practice (RP), Graduation Outcomes (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI), Peer Perception.

India has over 45,000 degree colleges, over 1000 universities and around 1500 top institutes. The number of Indian institutes registered for the NIRF rankings has steadily increased over the years.