The changing landscape of India’s higher education institutions is reflected in the NIRF ranking released by the Ministry of Education every year. Based on several parameters, the ranking provides a basis for admissions to students and parents. In the college category, the Hindu College of the University of Delhi has secured the first rank, followed by Miranda House and Hansraj College. This year marks the completion of one decade of the NIRF ranking, and a new criterion of Sustainable Development Goals has been added for globally aligned and responsible institutions.
The NIRF criteria are based on several factors, ranging from graduation outcome, research, teaching, learning output, inclusivity, and perception. Giving students a basic idea of the quality of institutions that they can use to make a choice. The top spots are taken by the Colleges of Delhi, but improvements and latest developments in regional colleges from West Bengal and Tamil Nadu have also made it to the list.
In the medical college category, AIIMS New Delhi has retained the top spot, while Chandigarh’s Post Graduate Institute for Medical Education and Research has gained the second spot. In the overall category, the Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru got the first rank, while JNU got second.
The latest addition of the SDG framework, which is remarked as the most historic change, will make higher institutions more environmentally inclusive and make the rankings more diverse. Another criterion added this year is the penalties for research papers that have been retracted, under the newly introduced “Research and Professional Practice”.
This will make institutions accountable for the withdrawal of faculty-written research papers due to errors and misconduct, which will negatively impact an institution’s overall ranking.
