Explained: NIRF Ranking 2023 And How India's Best Colleges And Universities Are Ranked

NIRF Ranking 2023: The Education Ministry said that the rankings are 'vital' for evaluating the 'quality' of educational programs offered by higher education institutions in colleges and universities in India.

NIRF Ranking 2023: The Education Ministry on Monday released the NIRF Ranking 2023 and said that it is 'vital' for evaluating the 'quality' of educational programs offered by higher education institutions in colleges and universities in India. Also known as the India Rankings 2023, which implements the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) drafted for this purpose by the Ministry of Education in 2015, they were released by Union Minister of State for Education Rajkumar Ranjan Singh in the presence of vice-chancellors and directors of institutions of higher education and other top officials. This was the eighth consecutive edition of India Rankings of higher education institutions in India. 

Speaking on the occasion, Rajkumar Ranjan Singh said that the India Rankings serve as a valuable tool for students in identifying universities based on their relative standing in various categories and subject domains among higher educational institutions in the country. It has also helped universities in identifying areas for improvement in teaching, research, resources, and infrastructure, he added.

The Minister stressed the requirement of working collectively to bring more and more institutions under the ambit of India Rankings as well as accreditation and expressed his pleasure with regard to the increase in the number of institutions who have applied for ranking in different categories and subject domains.

NIRF Ranking 2023: Three distinct additions this year

The three distinct additions of the 2023 edition of India Rankings are as follows:

-- Introduction of a new subject namely Agriculture & Allied Sectors

-- Integration of the 'Innovation' ranking previously executed by the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) into the India Rankings with an aim to reduce the burden on institutions of providing similar data to two different agencies.

-- Expansion of scope of 'Architecture' to 'Architecture and Planning' to include institutions imparting courses in Urban and Town Planning.

With the addition of a new category (Innovation) and subject domain (Agriculture & Allied Sectors) and expansion of 'Architecture' to 'Architecture and Planning', the existing portfolio of India Rankings has increased to 13 categories and subject domains that have been ranked in India Rankings 2023.

It is notable that during the maiden year of India Rankings in 2016, rankings were announced for Universities as well as for three domain-specific rankings, namely Engineering, Management, and Pharmacy institutions. However, over the period of eight years, four new categories and five new subject domains have been added to bring the total tally to five categories -- Overall, University, Colleges, Research Institutions & Innovation and 8 subject domains -- Engineering, Management, Pharmacy, Architecture & Planning, Medical, Law, Dental and Agriculture, and Allied Sectors.

NIRF Ranking: Five broad parameters

Five broad categories of parameters identified in the NIRF and their weightage on a scale of 10 are given below:

Parameter	Marks	Weightage
Teaching, Learning & Resources	100	0.30
Research and Professional Practice	100	0.30
Graduation Outcome	100	0.20
Outreach and Inclusivity	100	0.10
Perception	100	0.10

Each of these five parameters have 2 to 5 sub-parameters and a total number of 16-18 sub-parameters are then used for ranking of higher educational institutions in different categories and subject domains. Institutions are ranked based on the total sum of marks assigned for each of these five broad groups of parameters.

In addition to parameters used for the Overall category, the following two additional sub-parameters were included for ranking institutions under 'Research Institutions' -- Research Papers published in journals covered in the First Quartile of Journal Citation Report (JCRQ1), and H Index.

Besides, sourcing data on various parameters from applicant institutions, third-party sources of data are also used, wherever possible. Scopus (Elsevier Science) and Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) are also used for retrieving publications and citation data. Derwent Innovation is used for retrieving data on patents and the data retrieved from these sources are then shared with the institutions for transparency with a provision to give their inputs.

NIRF Rankings: Key highlights this year

• Indian Institute of Technology Madras retained its 1st position in Overall Category for the fifth consecutive year, i.e. 2019 to 2023, and in Engineering for the eighth consecutive year, i.e. from 2016 to 2023.
  
• The top 100 in the Overall category consisted of 44 CFTIs/ CFUs  INI, 24 state universities, 13 deemed universities, 18 private universities, 4 agriculture, and allied sector institutions, and 3 management institutions.  
  
• Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru topped the Universities Category for the eighth consecutive year, i.e. from 2016 to 2023. It stood first in Research Institutions Category for the third consecutive year, i.e. from 2021 to 2023.
  
• IIM Ahmedabad topped in Management subject retaining its first position for the fourth consecutive year, i.e. from 2020 to 2023. It was ranked among the top two in Management subject of the India Rankings from 2016 to 2019.
  
• All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi occupied the top slot in Medical for the sixth consecutive year, i.e. from 2018 to 2023. Moreover, AIIMS is ranked at 6th position in the Overall category thereby improving from its 9th position in 2022.
  
• National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hyderabad topped the ranking in Pharmacy for the first time pushing Jamia Hamdard to the second slot. Jamia Hamdard was ranked 1st position for four consecutive years, i.e., from 2019 to 2022.
  
• Miranda House retained the 1st position amongst Colleges for the seventh consecutive year, i.e. from 2017 to 2023.
  
• IIT Roorkee stood at 1st position in Architecture subject for the third consecutive year, i.e. from 2021 to 2023.
  
• National Law School of India University, Bengaluru retained its first position in Law for the sixth consecutive year, i.e. from 2018 to 2023.
  
• Colleges in Delhi maintained their dominance in the ranking of Colleges with five colleges out of the first 10 colleges from Delhi.
  
• The Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences took the top slot for the second consecutive year.
  
• Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi topped in Agriculture and Allied Sectors.
  
• Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur secured the first rank in the Innovation category.

Click here to find the overall NIRF Rankings 2023