National Institutional Ranking Framework
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The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a methodology adopted by the
Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
,
Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
, to rank
institutions of higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completio ...
in India. The Framework was approved by the MHRD and launched by Minister of Human Resource Development on 29 September 2015. Depending on their areas of operation, institutions have been ranked under 11 different categories – overall, university, colleges, engineering, management, pharmacy, law, medical, architecture, dental and research. The Framework uses several parameters for ranking purposes like resources, research, and stakeholder perception. These parameters have been grouped into five clusters and these clusters were assigned certain weightages. The weightages depend on the type of institution. About 3500 institutions voluntarily participated in the first round of rankings. NIRF was allotted a budget of for 2021–22.


Background

The 2017 ranked lists were released by MHRD on 3 April 2017. While in its first rankings released in 2016, NIRF had four categories (Universities, Engineering, Management and Pharmacy), in 2017, two more categories namely, Overall and College, were added. Around 3,000 institutions participated in the rankings. On April 3, 2018, the 2018 NIRF rankings were released which witnessed an increase in the number of participating institutions. The NIRF ranking for 2019 was released on April 8, 2019 in 9 categories which included Overall, Universities, Engineering, Colleges, Management, Pharmacy, Medical, Architecture, and Law. For the 2020 rankings, around 3,800 institutions participated in the process, which was 20 percent more than that in 2019. The 2020 ranked lists were released by MHRD on June 11, 2020. For the first time, the Dental institutes were placed under a different ranking list.


Formation

MHRD organized a one-day workshop on 21 August 2014 on evolving methodologies for the ranking of institutions of higher education in India. The meeting resolved to constitute a Committee for evolving a National Ranking Framework. Later it was also decided to co-opt representatives of central universities and IIMs also into the proposed committee. Based on these decisions, a core committee consisting of 16 members was constituted on 29 October 2014 with secretary (HE, MHRD, as chairperson and additional secretary (TE), MHRD, as member-secretary. The other members were the vice-chancellors of
Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...
, EFL University,
Central University of Gujarat Central University of Gujarat is a public central university in Gandhinagar, Gujarat offering courses at undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels. The university includes 16 schools, 14 academic departments, and 2 other special centres ...
and JNU, the directors of the
IIT Kharagpur Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) is a public institute of technology established by the Government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Established in 1951, the institute is the first of the IITs to be established ...
,
IIT Madras Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. As one of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), it is recognized as an Institute of National Importance and has be ...
,
IIM Ahmedabad Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad) is the world's number 1 business school, located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The school has been accorded the status of an Institute of National Importance by Ministry of Human Resource ...
,
IIM Bangalore The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are central government-owned-public business schools for management offering undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and executive programmes along with some additional courses in the field of busines ...
, NIT Tiruchirappalli,
NIT Warangal National Institute of Technology Warangal (NIT Warangal or NITW) is a public technical and research university located in Warangal, India. It is recognised as an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India. The foundation stone ...
, IIIT&M Gwalior,
IISER Bhopal Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal (IISER-B or IISER – Bhopal) is an autonomous institute. ] in Bhauri, Bhopal district, Madhya Pradesh, India. It was established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Gov ...
, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, SPA Delhi, NAAC, and chairperson of
NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
. The terms of reference of the committee were: *Suggest a National Framework for performance measurement and ranking of #Institutions; #Programmes; *Suggest the organizational structure, institutional mechanism and processes for implementation along with time-lines of the National Ranking Framework. # Suggest a mechanism for financing of the Scheme on National Ranking Framework. #Suggest linkages with
National Assessment and Accreditation Council The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is a government organisation in India that assesses and accredits Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). It is an autonomous body funded by the University Grants Commission and headquarte ...
(NAAC) and National Board of Accreditation (NBA), if any. The core committee identified a set of measurable parameters to be used as metrics for ranking the institutions. These parameters were grouped into five major headings. The committee suggested the weightages to be assigned to various groups of parameters in the case of institutions of engineering education and left the task of carrying out similar exercises for institutions of other disciplines to other competent agencies. The initial draft of the report was prepared by Surendra Prasad, chairman, National Board of Accreditation and Member of the core committee. The University Grants Commission constituted an expert committee on 9 October 2015 to develop a framework for the ranking of universities and colleges in India and the framework developed by this expert committee has been incorporated into NIRF. The core committee also suggested a framework for ranking institutions offering management education also. The
All India Council for Technical Education The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is a statutory body, and a national-level council for technical education, under the Department of Higher Education. Established in November 1945 first as an advisory body and later on in ...
developed parameters and metrics for ranking institutions offering pharmacy education and also architecture education.


Recommendations of the core committee

The following are some of the recommendations of the core committee: *The metrics for ranking of engineering institutions should be based on the parameters agreed upon by the core committee. * The parameters have been organized into five broad heads or groups and each group has been divided into suitable sub-groups. Each broad head has an overall weight assigned to it. Within each head, the sub-heads should also have appropriate weight distributions. *A suitable metric has been proposed which computes a score under each sub-head. The sub-head scores are then added to obtain scores for each individual head. The overall score is computed-based on the weights allotted to each head. The overall score can take a maximum value of 100. *The committee recommended the classification of institutions into two categories: :*Category A institutions: These are institutions of national importance set up by Acts of Parliament, State Universities, Deemed-to-be Universities, Private Universities and other autonomous institutions. :*Category B institutions: These are institutions affiliated to a University and do not enjoy full academic autonomy.


Parameters and their weightages


Engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture institutions

The approved set of parameter groups and the weightages assigned to them in respect of institutions offering programmes in engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture are given in the following table.


Overall and colleges

The approved set of parameter groups and the weightages assigned to them in respect of overall rating and for colleges are given in the following table, for 2018.


Criticism

The list was criticised for being incomplete, incoherent and bordering on the random in 2017. Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi raised objection on 2017 NIRF ranking, accusing it of being based on incomplete data. In 2021, Professor Anil Kumar Tripathi, director of the
Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University (ISc-BHU) is a constituent institute of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India which offers courses in Zoology, Botany, Biochemistry, Computer science, Geography, Mathematics, Physics , Geolog ...
criticised the NIRF University rankings, accusing it to compare institutions with same budget but varying number of students. He said that "
IISc The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute wa ...
no doubt, is the top institution in the country.
Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916 ...
(BHU), however, is a different kind of educational institution. Both institutions have almost the same budget but the same amount of money caters to a large number of students, teachers and infrastructure at BHU. In comparison to IISc the money available is about five to ten times lesser in our university because of the sheer size".


See also

*
National Skill Development Agency The National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) attempts to increase Employability of Youth in India. It is a fully autonomous body, constituted on the approval of Union Cabinet of India. On May 9, 2013, the Union Cabinet gave its nod to form NS ...
*
National Education Policy 2020 The National Education Policy of India 2020 (NEP 2020), which was started by the Union Cabinet of India on 29 July 2020, outlines the vision of new education system of India. The new policy replaces the previous National Policy on Education, 1 ...
*
Skill India Skill India or the National Skills Development Mission of India is a campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is managed by the National Skills Development Corporation of India. History Skill India campaign was launched by Prime Mi ...


References


Ranking 2020-Top 10 University list IISc, JNU, and BHU Best Universities''
{{University ranking systems University and college rankings Modi administration initiatives