Times Higher Education have put Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham at #81 in THE Impact Rankings. It is the only university from India to appear in the prestigious top 100 list. THE’s Impact Rankings rate universities around the world against the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The list consists of 1240 universities from 98 countries and regions.
Also, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham has scored 5th rank for ‘quality education’ and 8th for ‘gender equality’ globally. In ‘good health and well-being’, the varsity got 37th position and for 52nd rank for ‘clean water and sanitation’.
What has lead Amrita University to achieve this position? As per Duncan Ross, Chief Data Officer, Times Higher Education it is the University’s ‘commitment to core humanity’ that stood out. The quoted: “Their (Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham) commitment to core humanity, that lies at the heart of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, shone through in their submission. India has a huge role to play in delivering a sustainable future for the world, and the work that its universities do, as exemplified by Amrita, is vital.”
The projects that set the University apart from any other University in India and giving it the place in the THE Impact Ranking 2021 are as follows:
Amrita University’s researches are focused to uplift the economically challenged and other vulnerable sections of the society. This includes the students and the faculty members visiting the rural villages throughout India and while living in those communities, identifying and assessing the rural people’s needs. Also, they develop and implement viable solutions to their issues. This is done through the University’s Live-in-Labs®, a credit-based programme.
As per the University’s data, via the Live-in-Labs®, to date, there have been 150 projects in 21 states across India. All the participants in this project have tapped f approximately 60,000 rural residents during the past several years, clocking 200,000+ hours in the field working towards sustainable development in rural communities.
Apart from that, the University also has adult-literacy programs and provision of Internet literacy in tribal populations.
Also, the varsity has India’s first-ever UNESCO Chair on Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment that runs a massive women-empowerment program.
The University also has a teaching hospital that has conducted massive charitable outreach to the poor and that also raks at #7 in the NIRF rankings.
The varsity is also working towards providing clean drinking water to 10 million people throughout India.
The other Universities from India, that made it to the list are:
Band 101-200: JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research; Band 101-200: Lovely Professional University; Band 201-300: KIIT University; Band 201-300: VIT University; Band 301-400: University of Calcutta; Band 301-400: Don Bosco University; Band 401-600: BS Abdur Rahman Crescent Institute of Science and Technology; Band 401-600: Chitkara University; Band 401-600: Mahatma Gandhi University; Band 401-600: Manipal Academy of Higher Education; Band 401-600: National Institute of Technology Rourkela; Band 401-600: Nitte; and Band 401-600: Thapar University.