Annual report on ranking of Higher Education Institutions

Though India rankings have now become a critical factor for HEIs in the country, they continue to have some significant limitations

- VRUENDRA

Since 2016, the Ministry of Education at the Centre has been publishing an annual ranking of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the country, in different disciplines, under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).

I propose to summarise the NIRF report, 2025, released in September 2025, in two parts. Part | sums up the basic framework of this report and my brief assessment of this framework. In part 2, I will sum up the major findings of this report.

The 2025 report is the tenth edition of this exercise. Throughout this period, the scope of rankings has been gradually broadened to include additional categories and subject areas, leading to a consistent increase in both the number of participating institutions and those ranked across disciplines and categories. The number of institutions has increased from 3565 in 2016 to 7692 in 2025.

The established practice of providing a comprehensive ‘overall’ rank is maintained and complemented by specific rankings within nine key categories and eight subject areas. In addition, this year, a new parameter has been added based on institutional contributions to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to reflect their broader societal impact. Also, negative marks are assigned to institutions based on the number of retracted publications.

To be eligible for ranking, an institution must have a total intake of at least 1000 students in UG and PG courses, except for a few highly focused institutions. Further, at least three batches of full-time students must have graduated from an institution for it to be eligible for registration. In any case, open universities and affiliating universities are not considered for ranking. Also, for the overall and discipline-specific rankings, weights assigned are slightly different for some parameters.