The latest edition of India’s annual National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) has been released, ranking the country’s higher education institutions across various categories and subject domains. The rankings are relevant to UK higher education institutions (HEIs) looking to understand the relative advantages of Indian HEIs that are not included in global university rankings and are also used as criteria for eligibility for transnational education partnerships.

The broad parameters used in the methodology include teaching, learning and resources, research and professional practice, graduate outcomes, outreach and inclusivity, and perception. In NIRF 2023, 5,543 higher education institutions participated across 13 categories: overall, universities, medical, engineering, management, law, architecture, colleges, research institutions, pharmacy, dental, agriculture and allied sectors, and innovation.

Key highlights:

 - Indian Institute of Technology-Madras ranked first in the overall category for the fifth consecutive year.

 - All top positions are secured by the premier institutes in science and technology.

 - In the University category, 34 private higher education institutions ranked among the top 100.

 - Institutions of Eminence (IoE) hold the first four positions in the overall and research categories. The IoE scheme was initiated in 2017 to empower HEIs to become globally recognised and competitive.

 - The public sector Institutions of Eminence scored higher than their counterpart private IoEs.

 - IIT- Delhi is in the top five rank across the five NIRF categories of overall, research, innovation, management and engineering categories.

 - In the law category, there are four technical and science institutions in the top 15 position.  IIT Kharagpur ranked ninth surpassing many leading law education providers with its specialism in intellectual property rights and technology related law programme.

 - Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, are the prominent regions across overall, university and research categories.

 - Tamil Nadu has the maximum number of institutions in the top 100 (18 in overall category, 22 in the university category, 35 in the college category and 9 in the research category).

 - Delhi, Kerala, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu dominate the number of institutions in the college category.  Together they hold 89 per cent of  the top 100 positions.

 - Out of 28 states in India, only 12 states have a presence among the top 100 colleges.

British Council comments

Only a handful of Indian institutions appear in the main international rankings of leading universities.  In 2015, NIRF was developed by the Indian government with the aim to address the limitations of international rankings, which it believed overlooked country-specific context. It felt the international system focussed more on research, number of international students and faculty overlooking the access and inclusion issues.

Another reason for the significance of the list is that NIRF scores is one of the various criteria for Indian institutions to be eligible to collaborate with foreign HEIs for twinning, joint and dual degree programmes without needing approval from the University Grants Commission.

The NIRF rankings can provide useful insights on the leading Indian HEIs. However, India has more than 50,000 higher education institutions – including more than 1,000 universities, around 11,000 stand-alone institutions and almost 44,000 colleges – and many smaller institutions do not participate in NIRF. This means that the list is not fully representative and may reflect bias in terms of regional imbalance.

For any questions, contact Sandeepa Sahay

Further reading:

https://indianexpress.com/article/education/iit-madras-iisc-top-educational-institutes-in-the-country-nirf-rankings-2023-overall-category-nirfindia-org-cuet-ug-2023-8642426/

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/what-is-nirf-and-why-did-the-government-decide-to-rank-universities-7499133/