The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), which was launched by Ministry of Human Resource and Development (now Ministry of Education) in 2016 to assess performance of higher education institutes in India, has been gaining prominence among all the stakeholders of higher education including parents and prospective students, every year, since its launch.
The ranking framework, with a view to be relevant and to achieve higher acceptance, has been evolving over the last few years in terms of adding/ enhancing the ranking parameters and strengthening the ranking methodology, with a focus on enhancing quality in higher education institutions, streamlining outcome measures and have been instrumental in driving a competitive environment amongst progressive higher education institutions in the country.
Today, the ranking framework has become one of the performance yardsticks for higher education institutes (HEIs) to assess their performance as well as compare themselves against their peers in addition to being a tool for institutions to plan their growth in the medium to long-term
Further, based on the rankings, the top higher education institutions are seen to be a recipient of several benefits such as –
- Attracting quality students and faculty
- Attracting research funding and being eligible for various research schemes of Central and State Governments
- Improved perception among the stakeholders
- Attracting better national and international collaborations
- Being eligible to attract relaxations/ incentives such as offering online degree programs, applying to Institutions of Eminence (IoE) scheme of the Government of India; and
- Achieving higher autonomy in terms of academic practices, among others
Owing to these benefits associated with a good performance in the rankings, an increasing number of institutions have been participating in the NIRF rankings every year with a view to be among the top institutions in the country and to outperform their peers.
In line with this, the seventh edition of the rankings, which was released by the Ministry of Education, Government of India in July 2022 saw an increased participation from institutions, with over 4,700 institutions participating across categories.
KPMG in India’s Education Centre of Excellence has done a preliminary analysis of NIRF 2022 covering:
- Overall key highlights and trends emerging from NIRF 2022
- Category-wise insights – performance by type of institute and geography, details of new entrants across the 10 categories in NIRF 2022 – Universities, Colleges, Research Institutions, Engineering, Management, Pharmacy, Medical, Dental, Law, and Architecture
- A preliminary analysis of institutions across the different categories.
