NIRF Rankings For Indian Universities

The Ministry of Education released the National Institutional Ranking Framework, NIRF Rankings 2024, on Monday, August 12 and is the ninth edition of NIRF India Rankings was released by the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. This year, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru has claimed its spot by becoming the top university in India. Besides, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi and Jamia Millia Islamia also retained their former positions in the second and third spot respectively.

The NIRF rankings lists were released for 16 different categories. Three new categories- state universities, skill universities and open universities have been added this year. The other categories include universities, colleges, research institutions, engineering, management, pharmacy, medical, dental, law, architecture and planning, agriculture and allied sectors, and innovation.

What is the NIRF Ranking? 

The National Institutional Ranking Framework was launched by the Minister of Human Resource Development on September 23, 2015, and approved by the MHRD as a standardised tool to rank institutions across India. Since its inception, it has been a trusted benchmark for academic institutions, guiding students, educators, and policymakers in understanding and comparing the performance of universities and colleges nationwide.

The NIRF framework aims to recognise universities and colleges across India and rank the colleges based on these five essential parameters: Teaching, Learning and Resources, Research and Professional Practice, Graduation, Outcomes, Outreach and Inclusivity and Peer Perception. NIRF India aims to help students determine which colleges are best suitable for them and the field they want to study by ranking the Universities and Colleges every year.

Parameters for NIRF Ranking 2024

It has been divided into the following metrics 

1. Teaching, Learning, and Resources (Marks 100, Weightage 0.30)

• Student Strength including Doctoral Students (SS)
• Faculty-student ratio with emphasis on permanent faculty (FSR)
• Combined metric for Faculty with PhD (or equivalent) and Experience (FQE)
• Financial Resources and their Utilisation (FRU)

2. Research and Professional Practices (Marks 100, Weightage 0.30)

• Combined metric for Publications (PU)
• Combined metric for Quality of Publications (QP)
• IPR and Patents: Published and Granted (IPR)
• Footprint of Projects and Professional Practice (FPPP)

3. Graduation Outcomes (Marks 100, Weightage 0.20)

• Metric for University Examinations (GUE)
• Metric for Number of Ph.D. Students Graduated (GPHD)

4. Outreach and Inclusivity (Marks 100, Weightage 0.10)

• Percentage of Students from Other States/Countries (Region Diversity RD)
• Percentage of Women (Women Diversity WD)
• Economically and Socially Challenged Students (ESCS)
• Facilities for Physically Challenged Students (PCS)
• Perception (PR) Ranking

5. Perception (Marks 100, Weightage 0.10)

• Academic Peers and Employers (PR)

The Ranking Methodology

• The ranking Methodology is based on developing a set of metrics for ranking academic institutions, based on the parameters agreed upon by the core committee.
• Each ranking parameter and its sub-heads have a weight assigned to it.
• Ranking, an attempt is made to identify relevant data needed for measuring the performance score under each sub-head, only those data are identified that are easily provided by the institution or are easy to obtain from third-party sources and easy to verify wherever needed, thereby making the process transparent.
• A suitable metric is based on the data which computes a score under each sub-head.
• The sub-head scores are added to obtain scores for each parameter. The overall score is then computed based on the weights given to each head. The score can be a maximum value of 100.
• The institutions are then ranked based on their scores.

NIRF Rankings: Top 5 Medical Colleges in India 

NIRF Rankings: Top 5 Engineering Colleges in India 

NIRF Rankings: Top 5 MBA Colleges in India 

NIRF Rankings: Top 5 Law Colleges in India 

NIRF Rankings: Top 5 Architecture Colleges in India 

The weighted evaluation of several parameters determines the NIRF Rankings. ‘Teaching, Learning & Resources’ and ‘Research and Professional Practice’ are given the highest importance with each contributing 30% to the overall score. ‘Graduation Outcomes’ account for 20%, while ‘Outreach and Inclusivity’ and ‘Perception’ each contribute 10%. This structured approach allows for a balanced assessment of academic institutions, ensuring that all critical aspects of educational excellence are considered.