NIRF rankings: IIT Madras remains India’s top-ranked institute for 5th time

Union minister of state for education Rajkumar Ranjan Singh released the eighth edition of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) on Monday

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras remained the country’s top-ranked educational institute for the fifth time followed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, according to the eighth edition of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) released on Monday. Delhi University (DU)’s Miranda House emerged as the top college for the seventh time in a row.

File picture of Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT). (PTI)

IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee, and IIT Guwahati are on the list of top 10 institutes in the overall category. All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) ranked sixth and 10th.

The institutions were ranked under 13 categories—overall, university, colleges, engineering, management, pharmacy, law, medical, architecture, dental, research, agriculture, and innovation. They were evaluated on five broad generic parameters including teaching, learning, and resources, research and professional practice, graduation outcomes, outreach and inclusivity, and perception. The agriculture and allied sector category was included in NIRF for the first time this year.

As many as 8,686 applications were received for the rankings this year compared to 7,254 in 2022. In the overall category, IIT-Delhi replaced IIT-Mumbai for the third position.

Under the university category, IISc Bengaluru emerged as the top institute, followed by JNU, Jamia Millia Islamia, Jadavpur University, and Banaras Hindu University (BHU). The top four in this category remained the same as last year. BHU improved its rank and made it to the top five.

Hindu College, Presidency College (Chennai), PSGR Krishnammal College for Women (Coimbatore), St Xavier’s (Kolkata), Atma Ram Sanatan College (Delhi), Loyola College (Chennai) are among the top-ranked colleges.

DU’s Kirori Mal College and Lady Shri Ram College for Women ranked ninth and 10th. In this category, St Xavier’s improved its rank from eighth last year to fifth this year. Loyola College slipped to seventh place from last year’s fourth.

Eight IITs secured the top eight positions under the engineering category. IIT-Madras ranked the best institute in that category as well followed by IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IIT Roorkee, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Guwahati, and IIT Hyderabad. The National Institutes of Technology in Tiruchirapalli and Jadavpur University ranked ninth and 10th in the category.

IIT Roorkee improved its rank from sixth to fifth. IIT Kharagpur slipped to sixth place from the fifth last year. Jadavpur University replaced the National Institute of Technology Karnataka Surathkal in the top 10 engineering colleges.

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad topped the management category followed by IIM Bengaluru and IIM Kozhikode. IIM Kozhikode was ranked fifth last year. IIT-Delhi and IIT-Bombay also made it to the top 10 in the management category.

AIIMS Delhi topped the medical and Bengaluru’s National Law School of India University the law category followed by National Law School (Delhi). IIT-Kanpur topped the innovation category and Indian Agriculture Research Institute the agriculture and allied category.

In the research, IISc Bengaluru again emerged as the best institute followed by IIT-Madras and IIT-Delhi. In this category, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research slipped from seventh to 10th position.

The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (Hyderabad) has replaced Jamia Hamdard (New Delhi) as the top institute in pharmacy this year.

IITs continued to remain top of the architecture category with IIT-Roorkee, IIT Calicut, and IIT Kharagpur emerging as the top three institutions.

IIT Madras director V Kamakoti said the top ranking of his institute is just a reinforcement of their efforts to be recognised as a global leader in research and education. “...it gives me pride that we are on track with the Strategic Plan outlined for IIT Madras.”

IIM Ahmedabad director Bharat Bhasker said the recognition of the institute is a testament to its world-class education, and the cutting-edge research conducted by its faculty, which has a significant influence on business and public policy, and the efforts of their students. “This further strengthens our resolve to uphold high standards of excellence in every aspect of what we do and continue to contribute meaningfully to our nation’s growth.”