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The country’s first attempt to rank higher educational institutions has yielded some unlikely results, which education experts attribute to flaws in the survey methodology.
In the final rankings released on Monday, in which some well-established institutions shockingly failed to figure in the top 50, IIT-Madras emerged as the top engineering institution, while IIM-Bangalore was ranked as the best B-school.
More than 3,600 higher educational institutions, classified under six categories, submitted data for the first National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) for universities, engineering, management and pharmacy institutes.
In the engineering category, IIT-Madras topped the charts with a weighted score of 89.42, followed by IIT-Bombay, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Delhi and IIT-Kanpur with weighted scores of 87.67, 83.91, 82.03 and 81.07 respectively.
Among the management institutions, the IIMs occupied the top slots led by IIM-Bangalore with a weighted score of 93.04, followed by IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Calcutta and IIM-Lucknow. IIM-Udaipur and IIM-Kozhikode stood fifth and sixth, respectively. Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru is ranked as the first among universities, with a weighted score of 91.81, closely followed by Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. Jawaharlal Nehru University came in third followed by University of Hyderabad, Tezpur University, University of Delhi, Banaras Hindu University and Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology.
In the pharmacy category, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences grabbed the first place with a weighted score of 77.87, followed by University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chandigarh, Jamia Hamdard, Poona College of Pharmacy, Pune and Institute of Pharmacy, Nirma University.
“One of the biggest challenges in the higher education sector is that citizens feel there is no level playing field in terms of transparency and the data they need from these institutions,” said Smriti Irani, Minister for Human Resource Development.
These rankings would also help in attaining a benchmark of international excellence, besides helping students make informed choices about the institutions they want to join, the Minister said.
However, some education experts blamed a flawed methodology for the final rankings, in which government institutions appear disproportionately overrepresented at the top.
The parameters Institutions were assessed on parameters, including teaching-learning, research, collaborative practice and professional performance, graduate outcomes, placements outreach and inclusive action, and peer group perception.
Since the response from the architecture and general degree colleges fell short of being truly representative, it was decided not to rank institutions belonging to these two categories for this year.
The ranking, which will be an annual exercise, was done by an independent and autonomous body, a Ministry statement said, adding that the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) has been tasked with the ranking exercise.
To ensure third-party validation of the data that it received and analysed, an agency like Elsevier was engaged, the Ministry said.
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