National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF)

Subject – Governance

Context – India Rankings 2021 under the National Institutional Ranking Framework were recently released.

Concept –

National Institute Ranking Framework or NIRF is the first-ever effort by the government to rank higher education institutions (HEIs) in the country.
Before NIRF’s launch in 2016, HEIs were usually ranked by private entities, especially news magazines.
While participation in the NIRF was voluntary in the initial years, it was made compulsory for all government-run educational institutions in 2018.
This year, roughly 6,000 institutions have participated in NIRF — about twice the number in 2016.
In order to be ranked, all education institutions are assessed on five parameters:
- teaching, learning and resources,
- research and professional practices,
- graduation outcomes,
- outreach and inclusivity, and
NIRF lists out best institutions across 11 categories – overall national ranking, universities, engineering, college, medical, management, pharmacy, law, architecture, dental and research.

Why did the Union government decide to rank HEIs?

The idea of NIRF has its roots in the global rankings.
The union government and government-run HEIs were quite upset about their standing in QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education World University Ranking.
To counter this, India decided to emulate the Chinese example. The Shanghai Rankings, done by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, was born out of this in 2003. Nine Chinese universities and three from India (Indian Institute of Science (IISc), IIT Kharagpur and IIT Delhi) made it to the top 500 in the first edition of the Shanghai Rankings.
While the Shanghai Rankings were international in character from the first year itself, the NIRF only ranked Indian HEIs.

NIRF Ranking 2021

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras was ranked the best higher education institution in the country for the third year in a row by the Union Education Ministry, which released its India Rankings 2021 under the National Institutional Ranking Framework .
The IITs dominated the overall rankings, grabbing seven of the top 10 positions.
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru was ranked second, followed by the IITs in Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Roorkee and Guwahati. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) were at rank nine and 10, respectively.
Among universities, the IISc was ranked one, followed by the JNU, the BHU, the University of Calcutta, the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Jadavpur University, the University of Hyderabad and Aligarh Muslim University.