Jamia Millia Islamia university's biotechnology department has been rated one of the top 10 public institutes of India in a nationwide survey, a university official said Monday.

The biotechnology department of the university was surveyed under various categories like ranking by industry interaction, ranking by faculty score, ranking by infrastructure score and ranking by placement score.

Called the 'Sixth BioSpectrum Top 20 Biotechnology Schools Survey 2010', the survey was conducted by BioSpectrum, a scientific journal.

The department, which comes under the faculty of natural sciences, was placed on "top position" under the category 'Ranking by Placement Score'.

"The biotechnology department is way ahead of all other institutions and universities in the country," said the media co-ordinator of Jamia Millia Islamia.

The department of biotechnology offers M.Sc. and Ph.D. courses in biotechnology and molecular biology.

The department, which is well equipped with labs, currently has 25 Ph.D. research scholars who are engaged in cutting-edge research in molecular biology and biotechnology.