MCOPS is top ranked pharma college in India

MANIPAL: Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MCOPS) was ranked top pharmacy college in India by National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) released by Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani on Monday at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. This first-of-its-kind indigenous ranking framework for higher education institutions has ranked institutes in engineering, management and pharmacy.

Dr Mallikarjuna Rao, principal of the College said, “It is a dream come true for us and a befitting reward for 53 years of hard work”. Dr Rao attributed this to hard work done by his predecessors and credited 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.

As per NIRF, 10 best institutions have been named in each stream and MCOPS, Manipal was declared the best in Pharmacy. “There are over a 1,000 pharmacy colleges in the country and to be chosen as the finest is a great honour indeed,” said Manipal University Vice Chancellor Dr H Vinod Bhat. “I am delighted to know that MCOPS has been ranked the best in the country. My heartiest congratulations to the entire MCOPS team for this impressive performance,” he said.

Noting that this is only the beginning of the journey and he expects MCOPS to be rated among the best in the world in the next five years, Dr Bhat said 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 all, he noted.