The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) released by the HRD ministry in April 2018 has again opened the Pandora’s Box of questions on its reliability and accuracy from many institutions and academicians. Higher Education Plus gives the statistics of the top ten educational institutions in overall, engineering, medical, pharmacy, architecture, law, university, and college categories in 2018. It also throws light on the problems associated with parameters adopted in the current NIRF ranking.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has approved and implemented the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in September 2015. The framework is aimed at finding the ranking of higher educational institutions on the basis of a variety of parameters including teaching, learning and resources (TLR), research, professional practices and collaborative performance (RPC), graduation outcome (GO), outreach and inclusivity (OI), and perception (PR).
The objective of the rankings is to measure the relative standing of the institutions, to encourage them to compete and improve, and help the students make informed career choices.
Ever since its introduction NIRF has been in the line of fire from several educational institutions across the country over the low placement in the rankings. The criticism by many academicians is primarily on the parameters which are general in nature and do not take into account certain specific points like geographical disadvantage and financial constraints.
NIRF 2018 The latest NIRF rankings released in April 2018 included addition of three new categories medical, architecture, and law apart from regular categories of overall, universities, engineering, management, colleges, and pharmacy.
Unlike 2016 and 2017 NIRF lists, which included the ranks of only those institutions that had taken part in the exercise, the 2018 list auto-registered the institutions through a large online database from the All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) portal. However, the institutions have provided details like patents, publications, research projects and campus placements that are not available on the portal.
More than 3,000 institutions participated in the India Rankings 2017, and the total number of institutions participated in 2018 has risen by 1,000.
As per NIRF 2018 ranking Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore stood first in the university category, followed by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and Benares Hindu University (BHU). All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) Delhi ranked top in medical college category, while Indian Institute of Madras (IIT-M) was adjudged as the best engineering college. The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmadabad (IIMA) was considered as top management institution. The list placed Delhi University’s Miranda House as the best college and NLSIU-Bengaluru the best law school in the country.
Inconsistent and inconceivable parameters in NIRF
NIRF 2018 has raised further questions over the credibility of the ranking parameters, which has already been in debate for the last two editions released in 2016 and 2017. Some academicians have raised the eyebrows over the NIRF ranking procedure and its parameters. The methodology of ranking and the general parameters adopted NIRF have led to many discrepancies.
The teaching, learning and resources parameter simply uses available crude statics of student strength, student-faculty ratio, number of faculties with PhDs, and the total budget of the institution to make some sweeping statements. The 30% weight given to the institutions for having number of registered doctoral scholars, may make some real reputed institutions with smaller number of scholars difficult to compete and find a place in NIRF list.
The research parameter carries a 30% weight in the NIRF ranking. Many of the Indian colleges however, do not foster a research mindset, which may make a lot of colleges in slip in the NIRF ranking. Moreover, if excessive impetus is put on submission of papers and journals, then the process of classroom learning largely gets neglected. For instance in 2018 rankings the RPP score of JNU was 42.60, RPP score of BHU was 50.76, and the RPP score of Anna University was 60.76.
Does this imply that JNU scholars produce research that is inferior to Anna University, and BHU? Certainly not, so here comes the need to introduce some more parameters to evaluate an institution more pragmatically.
The parameters like of outreach and perception too are dependent on geographical location and financial help the institutions get. Therefore, it is not fair to equate all institutions with same parameter for ranking.
Conclusion
The complaints by some technical education institutions over the NIRF ranking 2018 has prompted the ministry of HRD to acknowledge the problem in ranking system, and consider new norms and specific parameters to rank colleges in medicine, law, architecture, pharmacy, and management categories. The HRD ministry in August 2018 has decided to constitute a sub-committee which will look into the problems and will find new specific parameters for ranking of institutions.
Even though, there are many discrepancies in the NIRF rankings, it has become imperative for the government to have such a ranking system which can improve the competitiveness in higher education institutions in the country after finding that there is no Indian institution name figured in the top global university rankings.
NIRF is a first step in the direction of improving the quality higher education in India. There is a scope for NIRF to improve for making it more reliable and accurate in ranking of institutions, which can ultimately help make Indian institutions rank better globally.
NIRF 2018 India Top 10 Overall Ranking
| Institute | Score | Rank |
| Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore | 82.16 | 1 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Madras | 81.39 | 2 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay | 79.20 | 3 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi | 73.97 | 4 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur | 71.39 | 5 |
| Jawaharlal Nehru University | 67.57 | 6 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur | 65.39 | 7 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee | 64.93 | 8 |
| Banaras Hindu University | 63.52 | 9 |
| Anna University, Chennai | 62.82 | 10 |
Top 10 Universities
| Institute | Score | Rank |
| Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore | 82.16 | 1 |
| Jawaharlal Nehru University | 67.57 | 2 |
| Benares Hindu University | 63.52 | 3 |
| Anna University | 62.82 | 4 |
| University of Hyderabad | 60.54 | 5 |
| Jadavpur University | 59.68 | 6 |
| University of Delhi | 58.69 | 7 |
| Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham | 58.46 | 8 |
| Savitribai Phule Pune University | 58.24 | 9 |
| Aligarh Muslim University | 57.78 | 10 |
Top 10 Medical Institutes
| Institute | Score | Rank |
| All India Institute of Medical Sciences New Delhi | 90.71 | 1 |
| Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh | 78.73 | 2 |
| Christian Medical College, Vellore | 73.61 | 3 |
| Kasturba Medical College, Manipal | 62.03 | 4 |
| King George’s Medical University, Lucknow | 61.73 | 5 |
| Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research, Puducherry | 59.27 | 6 |
| Benares Hindu University, Varanasi | 58.52 | 7 |
| Institute of Liver and Bellary Sciences, New Delhi | 57.12 | 8 |
| Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh | 56.34 | 9 |
| Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research institute, Chennai | 55.32 | 10 |
Top 10 Colleges
| Institute | Score | Rank |
| Miranda House, Delhi | 71.00 | 1 |
| St. Stephens College, Delhi | 70.77 | 2 |
| Bishop Heber College, Tiruchirapalli | 67.63 | 3 |
| Hindu College, Delhi | 67.46 | 4 |
| Presidency College, Chennai | 66.21 | 5 |
| Loyola College, Chennai | 66.06 | 6 |
| Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi | 63.09 | 7 |
| Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi | 63.53 | 8 |
| Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, Howrah | 62.79 | 9 |
| Madras Christian College, Chennai | 60.74 | 10 |
Top Ten Engineering Institutes
| Institute | Score | Rank |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Madras | 88.95 | 1 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay | 84.82 | 2 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi | 82.18 | 3 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur | 77.78 | 4 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur | 75.24 | 5 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee | 72.57 | 6 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati | 69.25 | 7 |
| Anna University | 67.04 | 8 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad | 60.87 | 9 |
| Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai | 60.63 | 10 |
Top Ten Management Institutes
| Institute | Score | Rank |
| Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad | 79.18 | 1 |
| Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore | 77.33 | 2 |
| Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta | 77.08 | 3 |
| Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow | 68.63 | 4 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay | 66.80 | 5 |
| Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode | 65.21 | 6 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur | 63.36 | 7 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi | 63.31 | 8 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee | 62.95 | 9 |
| Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur | 62.66 | 10 |
Top Ten Law Institutes
| Institute | Score | Rank |
| National Law School of India University, Bengaluru | 75.79 | 1 |
| National Law University, Delhi | 74.58 | 2 |
| Nalsar University of Law | 70.95 | 3 |
| Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur | 67.07 | 4 |
| National Law University Jodhpur | 63.50 | 5 |
| Jamia Millia Islamia | 59.91 | 6 |
| The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata | 59.17 | 7 |
| Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow | 54.82 | 8 |
| Symbiosis Law School, Pune | 54.25 | 9 |
| Dr. B. R. Ambedkar College of Law, Visakhapatnam | 50.93 | 10 |
Top Ten Pharmacy Institutes
| Institute | Score | Rank |
| National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Mohali | 78.20 | 1 |
| Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi | 77.17 | 2 |
| Panjab University, Chandigarh | 76.50 | 3 |
| Institute of Chemical Technology | 73.69 | 4 |
| Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani | 71.92 | 5 |
| National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hyderabad | 67.88 | 6 |
| Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Udupi | 66.31 | 7 |
| Bombay College of Pharmacy, Mumbai | 57.94 | 8 |
| SVKM`s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai | 57.61 | 9 |
| JSS College of Pharmacy, Mysore | 57.34 | 10 |
Top Ten Architecture Institutes
| Institute | Score | Rank |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur | 78.41 | 1 |
| Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee | 74.24 | 2 |
| School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi | 54.86 | 3 |
| College of Engineering, Trivandrum | 54.15 | 4 |
| School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal | 53.10 | 5 |
| Anna University, Chennai | 50.83 | 6 |
| JNAFAU School of Planning and Architecture | 49.82 | 7 |
| Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi | 49.09 | 8 |
| National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur | 46.04 | 9 |
| Faculty of Architecture, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Udupi | 43.14 | 10 |
