The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) released a list on the 10th of June 2020 in which it ranked the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras INSTITUTIONS as the best in the field of higher studies in the nation. IIT Madras is followed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru as it claimed the second position in the standings as it preceded, IIT Delhi.
While in the rankings for the universities of the nation, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) claimed the first position. The rankings had Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) for the second and third positions respectively. Notably, the Delhi University which was in the top ten best universities was dropped out from the list while interestingly, maximum colleges in the best colleges category formed a part of that list.
In the list of colleges, Miranda House secured the first position in the list while the Lady Shri Ram College for Women claimed the second-ranking and the Hindu college had the third position. Remarkably, all of these colleges are affiliated with the Delhi University.
This classification followed the QS World University INSTITUTIONS which came the previous day in which India’s top-ranked- IITs and IISc slipped a few positions in the global rankings as the perception was the primary parameter while providing weightage to the standings.
Speaking on this fall, the Minister of Human Resource Development, Ramesh Pokhriyal stated “The global agencies give us a lower ranking due to ‘perception’, which is a subjective parameter and I do not agree with it,”
Unlike to this the NIRF rankings which have been launched by the Ministry of HRD in the year 2016, the ranking provides much more weightage to the parameter like the methodology of teaching and the way of learning, INSTITUTIONS the strength and quality of the faculty as well as the strength of students, the number of patents filed and the quality of research papers, the usage of financial resources and finally the results at the graduation of students.
According to Mr. Nishank in a statement to The Hindu, “90% of the parameters in NIRF are completely objective and factbased, while only 10% is based on the subjective parameter of perception by academic peers and employers'”.
