Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Released India Rankings 2021

Union Education Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan released the India Rankings 2021 instituted by the National Institutional Ranking Framework here. Smt. Annpurna Devi, Minister of State; Dr. Subhas Sarkar, Minister of State for MoE; Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Minister of State; Shri Amit Khare, Secretary (HE); Prof. D.P. Singh, Chairman, UGC; Prof. Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE; Prof. K.K. Aggarwal, Chairman, NBA and Dr. Anil kumar Nassa, Member Secretary, NBA also attended the event.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Pradhan said that a robust & a role model ranking framework will serve as India’s contribution to the global learning landscape, so, we must ensure that our ranking framework emerges as a benchmark not only in the country, but also globally, especially for the developing economies. He also urged to develop regional ranking frameworks.

The Minister stressed that the NEP also provides us with an opportunity to internationalise our education system. We must work collectively to bring more and more institutions under our rankings framework and also establish India as a preferred global study destination. He congratulated all the premiere institutions from across India who topped the rankings in their respective categories— overall, universities, engineering, management, college, pharmacy, medical, architecture, law, dental and research institutions.

This is the sixth consecutive edition of India Rankings of HEIs in India. During its maiden year in 2016, rankings were announced for University category as well as for three domain-specific rankings, namely Engineering, Management and Pharmacy institutions. Over the period of six years, three new categories and five new subject domains were added to bring the total tally to 4 four categories, namely Overall, University, College and Research Institutions and 7 subjects, namely Engineering, Management, Pharmacy, Architecture, Medical, Law and Dental in 2021. Research institutions have been ranked for the first time in India Rankings 2021.

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 past five editions of India Rankings released for the years 2016 to 2021.

Five Broad Categories of Parameters and Weightage

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. Ranks are assigned 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 in methodology developed afresh 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.

A total number of 4030 unique institutions offered themselves for ranking under “Overall”, category-specific and / or domain-specific rankings for India Rankings 2021. In all, 6272 applications for ranking were made by these 4030 unique applicant institutions under various categories / domains including1657 in Overall Category, 1143in Engineering, 659in Management, 351 in Pharmacy, 120in Law, 111in Medical, 78in Architecture and 1802in 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 2426 in 2016 to 4030 in 2021 whereas total number of applications for ranking in various categories have increased from 3565 in 2016, to 6272 in 2021i.e. total increase of 1604(66% increase) in unique institutions and 2707(76% increase) in total applicants.

Increase in Number of Applicants for India Rankings from 2016 to 2021

As a matter of practice, 200 institutions are ranked in engineering discipline, 100 each in Overall, University and College categories, 75 each in Management and Pharmacy, 50 each in Medical and Research Institutions, 40 in Dental, 30 in Law, and 25 in Architecture. Additional rankings are suitably bunched in Rank Bands of 101-150 and 151-200 in case of Overall, University and College and 201-250 and 251-300 in case of Engineering.

Key Highlights of India Rankings 2021:

• Indian Institute of Technology Madras retains 1^st Position in Overall Category as well as in Engineering for the third consecutive year.
• Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru tops the University as well as Research Institution category introduced for the first time in India Rankings 2021.
• IIM Ahmedabad tops in Management subject and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi occupies the top slot in Medical for the fourth consecutive year.
• Jamia Hamdard tops the list in Pharmacy subject for the third consecutive year.
• Miranda College retains 1^st position amongst colleges for the fifth consecutive year.
• IIT Roorkee takes the top slot for the first time in Architecture subject displacing IIT Kharagpur.
• National Law School of India University, Bangalore retains its first position for in Law for the fourth consecutive years.
• Colleges in Delhi dominate ranking of colleges with five colleges out of first 10 colleges from Delhi.
• Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal, secure 1^st position in “Dental” category.