Ranking of Professional Colleges

Understanding the maze of metrics and meaning of ranking of professional colleges in India, decision-making for aspiring students and parents becomes much more specific and refined

- Prof S Sadagopan Founder Director, IIIT-Bangalore

In recent years, the ranking of professional colleges—particularly engineering institutions and business schools—has gained national prominence in India. With the country boasting the largest population of young people aged between 15 and 25, the pressure to choose the “right” college has never been more intense.

For many Indian families, a professional college degree is viewed as a definitive passport to success. Students, influenced by the ever-expanding reach of social media and online forums, often base their decisions on what is trending rather than what is fitting. Simultaneously, government funding bodies such as the Department of Science and Technology (DST) have started using rankings as a key eligibility criterion, further amplifying the significance of college rankings.

In the current scenario, there are several ranking systems available for the benefit of students and parents. Renowned magazines like Outlook and India Today publish annual college rankings, each with its unique methodology. Online portals like Career360 and recommendation-driven sites such as Shiksha and CollegeDekho offer tailored rankings, sometimes creating a different list for each user. Therefore, the same institution might appear at vastly different positions across these rankings, based on the parameters and priorities of the analyses.