India Rankings have served as a valuable tool for students in selecting universities based on their relative standing in various categories and subject domain among HEIs in the country, says the Minister

Multi-dimensional parameters of India Rankings have successfully captured the quality and excellence of HEIs in India –  Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh

Posted On: 05 JUN 2023 6:59PM by PIB Delhi

Minister of State for Education and External Affairs, Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh today released the India Rankings 2023, which implements the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) drafted for this purpose by the Ministry of Education in 2015. Shri K Sanjay Murthy, Secretary (HE), Prof. M Jagadesh Kumar, Chairman, UGC, Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Chairman, AICTE, Prof.  Anil Sahasrabuddhe, Chairman, NETF and NBA, Dr. Abhay Jere, Vice Chairman, AICTE and Dr. Anil Kumar Nassa, Member Secretary, NBA were present on this occasion along with vice chancellors and directors of institutions of higher education.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan stated that ranking and accreditation are vital for evaluating the quality of educational programs offered by higher education institutions in colleges and universities. He said that the Ministry of Education took the commendable step of drafting National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2015, which defines multi-dimensional parameters to capture quality and excellence of HEIs in India across various categories and subject domains and rank them based on their cumulative score on these parameters, he added.

He mentioned that 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 (HEIs) in the country. It has also helped universities in identifying areas for improvement in teaching, research, resources, and infrastructure, he added.

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

This is the eighth consecutive edition of India Rankings of HEIs in India. Three distinct additions of 2023 edition of India Rankings are as follows:

1. Introduction of a new subject namely Agriculture & Allied Sectors
2. Integration of “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.
3. Expansion of scope of “Architecture” to “Architecture and Planning” to include institutions imparting courses in Urban and Town Planning.

With the addition of new category (Innovation) 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.

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

Five Broad Categories of Parameters and Weightage

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), launched in November 2015 by the Ministry of Education, was used for this edition as well as for the previous seven editions of India Rankings released for the years 2016 to 2023. Five broad categories of parameters identified in the NIRF and their weightage on scale of 10 are given below:

Each of these five parameters have 2 to 5 sub-parameters. A total number of 16 – 18 sub-parameters are used for ranking of HEIs in different categories and subject domains. Institutions are ranked based on total sum of marks assigned for each of these five broad groups of parameters. In addition to parameters used for Overall category, the following two additional sub-parameters were included for ranking institutions under “Research Institutions”: i) Research Papers published in journals covered in the First Quartile of Journal Citation Report (JCRQ1); and ii) H Index.

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

Increase in Number of Applicants for India Rankings from 2016 to 2023

A total number of 5,543 unique institutions offered themselves for ranking under “Overall”, category-specific and / or domain-specific rankings for India Rankings 2023. In all, 8,686 applications for ranking were made by these 5,543 unique institutions under various categories / domains including 2,478 in Overall Category, 1,314 in Engineering, and 2,746 in General Degree Colleges. A noticeable increase in institutional participation in the rankings exercise this year indicates its recognition amongst institutions of higher education in India as a fair and transparent ranking exercise. Number of unique applicants to India Rankings have increased from 2,426 in 2016 to 5,543 in 2023 whereas total number of applications for ranking in various categories have increased from 3,565 in 2016, to 8,686 in 2023 i.e. total increase of 3,117 (128.48% increase) in number of unique institutions and 5,121 (143.65% increase) in total number of applicants.

Increase in Number of Institutions Ranked in India Rankings from 2016 to 2023

100 institutions are being ranked in Overall, Universities, Colleges and Engineering since inception of India Rankings in 2016. Moreover, number of institutions ranked in Management and Pharmacy have been increased from 75 to100 each from 2022 onwards. However, number of institutions ranked are restricted between 30 and 50 in subject domains namely Architecture, Law, Medical, Dental as well as in Research Institutions. Additional rankings are suitably bunched in Rank Bands of 101-150 and 151-200 in case of Overall, Universities, Colleges and Engineering and 101-125 in case of Pharmacy and Management.

Key Highlights of India Rankings 2023

• Indian Institute of Technology Madras retains its 1^st position in Overall Category for fifth consecutive year, i.e. 2019 to 2023  and in Engineering for eighth consecutive year, , i.e. from 2016 to 2023..
• Top 100 in Overall category consists 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 tops the Universities Category for eighth consecutive years, 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 tops in Management subject retaining its first position for fourth consecutive year, i.e. from 2020 to 2023. It was ranked amongst top two in Management subject of the India Rankings from 2016 to 2019.
• All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi occupies the top slot in Medical for the sixth consecutive year, i.e. from 2018 to 2023. Moreover, AIIMS is ranked at 6^th position in Overall category thereby  improving from its 9^th position in 2022.
• National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Hyderabad tops the ranking in Pharmacy for first time pushing Jamia Hamdard to the second slot. Jamia Hamdard was ranked at 1^st position for four consecutive years, i.e., from 2019 to 2022.
• Miranda House retains the 1^st position amongst Colleges for the seventh consecutive year, i.e. from 2017 to 2023.
• IIT Roorkee stands at 1^st position in Architecture subject for third consecutive year, i.e. from 2021 to 2023.
• National Law School of India University, Bengaluru retains its first position in Law for the sixth consecutive year, i.e. from 2018 to 2023
• Colleges in Delhi maintained their dominance in ranking of Colleges with five colleges out of first 10 colleges from Delhi.
• The Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences takes the top slot for the second consecutive year.
• Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi takes the top slot in Agriculture and Allied Sectors.
• Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur tops in Innovation category.