| National Institutional Ranking Framework | |
| Category: | Higher education |
| Frequency: | Annually |
| Circulation: | All over India |
| Publisher: | Ministry of Education (Govt of India) |
| Country: | India |
| Based: | New Delhi |
| Language: | English |
| Italic Title: | no |
National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a ranking methodology released annually by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, to rank institutions of higher education in India. The framework was approved by the former Ministry of Human Resource Development (now the Ministry of Education) and launched by the Minister on 29 September 2015.[1]
Depending on their areas of operation, institutions have been ranked under 11 different categories – overall, university, colleges, engineering, management, pharmacy, law, medical, architecture, dental and research.[2] The Framework uses several parameters for ranking purposes like resources, research, and stakeholder perception. These parameters have been grouped into five clusters and these clusters were assigned certain weights. These weights depend on the type of institution. About 3500 institutions voluntarily participated in the first round of rankings.[3]
The 2017 rankings were released by MHRD on 3 April 2017.[4] While in its first rankings released in 2016, NIRF had four categories (Universities, Engineering, Management and Pharmacy), in 2017, two more categories namely, Overall and College, were added. Around 3,000 institutions participated in the rankings.[5]
On 3 April 2018, the 2018 NIRF rankings were released with an increased number of participating institutions over the previous year.[6]
The 2019 NIRF ranking was released on 8 April 2019 in 9 categories: Overall, Universities, Engineering, Colleges, Management, Pharmacy, Medical, Architecture, and Law.[7]
For the 2020 rankings, around 3,800 institutions participated in the process, a 20% increase over 2019.[8] The 2020 ranked lists were released by MHRD on 11 June 2020. For the first time, dental institutes were placed in a new category.[9]
MHRD organized a one-day workshop on 21 August 2014 on evolving methodologies for the ranking of institutions of higher education in India. The meeting resolved to establish a committee for building a national ranking framework. Later it was also decided to appoint representatives of central universities for the proposed committee. Based on these decisions, a core committee consisting of 16 members was constituted on 29 October 2014 with secretary (HE, MHRD, as chairperson and additional secretary (TE), MHRD, as member-secretary. The other members were the vice-chancellors of Delhi University, EFL University, Central University of Gujarat and JNU, the directors of the IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, NIT Tiruchirappalli, NIT Warangal, IIIT&M Gwalior, IISER Bhopal, SPA Delhi, NAAC, and chairperson of NBA.[10]
The terms of reference of the committee were:
The core committee identified a set of measurable parameters to be used as metrics for ranking the institutions. These parameters were grouped under five major headings. The committee suggested the weightages to be assigned to various groups of parameters in the case of institutions of engineering education, and left the task of carrying out similar exercises for institutions of other disciplines to other competent agencies. The initial draft of the report was prepared by Surendra Prasad, chairman of the National Board of Accreditation and Member of the core committee.
The University Grants Commission constituted an expert committee on 9 October 2015 to develop a framework for the ranking of universities and colleges in India and the framework developed by this expert committee has been incorporated into NIRF.[11] The core committee also suggested a framework for ranking institutions offering management education also.[12] The All India Council for Technical Education developed parameters and metrics for ranking institutions offering pharmacy education[13] and also architecture education.[14]
The following are some of the recommendations of the core committee:[10]
The approved set of parameter groups and the weightages assigned to them in respect of institutions offering programmes in engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture are given in the following table.
| Parameters | Category A institutions | Category B institutions |
| Teaching, learning and resources (TLR) | 0.30 | 0.30 |
| Research, professional practice and collaborative performance (RPC) | 0.30 | 0.20 |
| Graduation outcome (GO) | 0.15 | 0.25 |
| Outreach and inclusivity (OI) | 0.15 | 0.15 |
| Perception (PR) | 0.10 | 0.10 |
The approved set of parameter groups and the weightages assigned to them in respect of overall rating and for colleges are given in the following table, for 2018.
| Parameters | Overall[15] | Colleges[16] |
|---|---|---|
| Teaching, learning and resources (TLR) | 0.30 | 0.40 |
| Research, productivity, impact and IPR (RPII) | 0.30 | 0.15 |
| Graduation outcome (GO) | 0.20 | 0.25 |
| Outreach and inclusivity (OI) | 0.10 | 0.10 |
| Perception (PR) | 0.10 | 0.10 |
Note: The India Rankings 2025, released in September 2025, continue NIRF's use of multiple categories including Overall, Universities, Engineering, Management, Medical, Research, Law, Agriculture, Architecture, Pharmacy, and Colleges.[17]
| Rank | Name | City | State/UT | NIRF Score | Budget | Institutional classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indian Institute of Technology Madras | Chennai | Tamil Nadu | 87.31 | Public | |
| 2 | Indian Institute of Science | Bengaluru | Karnataka | 85.00 | Public | |
| 3 | Indian Institute of Technology Bombay | Mumbai | Maharashtra | 81.62 | Public | |
| 4 | Indian Institute of Technology Delhi | Delhi | Delhi | 80.67 | Public | |
| 5 | Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur | Kanpur | Uttar Pradesh | 77.25 | Public | |
| 6 | Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur | Kharagpur | West Bengal | 73.99 | Public | |
| 7 | Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee | Roorkee | Uttarakhand | 71.73 | Public | |
| 8 | All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi | New Delhi | Delhi | 70.57 | Public | |
| 9 | Jawaharlal Nehru University | New Delhi | Delhi | 69.62 | Public | |
| 10 | Banaras Hindu University | Varanasi | Uttar Pradesh | 68.71 | Public | |
| Rank | Name | City | State/UT | NIRF Score | Budget | Institutional classification | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IIT Madras | Chennai | Tamil Nadu | 88.72 | Public | ||
| 2 | IIT Delhi | Delhi | 85.74 | Public | |||
| 3 | IIT Bombay | Mumbai | Maharashtra | 83.65 | Public | ||
| 4 | IIT Kanpur | Kanpur | Uttar Pradesh | 81.82 | Public | ||
| 5 | IIT Kharagpur | Kharagpur | West Bengal | 78.69 | Public | ||
| 6 | IIT Roorkee | Roorkee | 75.44 | Public | |||
| 7 | IIT Hyderabad | Hyderabad | Telangana | 72.31 | Public | ||
| 8 | IIT Guwahati | Guwahati | Assam | 72.24 | Public | ||
| 9 | NIT Trichy | Tiruchirapalli | Tamil Nadu | 68.14 | Public | ||
| 10 | IIT (BHU) | Varanasi | Uttar Pradesh | 67.24 | Public |
| Rank | Name | City | State | NIRF Score | Budget | Institutional classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indian Institute of Science | Bengaluru | Karnataka | 85.05 | Public | |
| 2 | Jawaharlal Nehru University | New Delhi | Delhi | 71.00 | Public | |
| 3 | Manipal Academy of Higher Education | Manipal | Karnataka | 69.25 | Private | |
| 4 | Jamia Millia Islamia | New Delhi | Delhi | 69.10 | Public | |
| 5 | Delhi University | New Delhi | Delhi | 67.38 | Public | |
| 6 | Banaras Hindu University | Varanasi | Uttar Pradesh | 67.28 | Public | |
| 7 | BITS Pilani | Pilani | Rajasthan | 67.24 | Private | |
| 8 | Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham | Coimbatore | Tamil Nadu | 67.05 | Private | |
| 9 | Jadavpur University | Kolkata | West Bengal | 65.42 | Public | |
| 10 | Aligarh Muslim University | Aligarh | Uttar Pradesh | 65.35 | Public | |
| Rank | Name | City | State | NIRF Score | Budget | Institutional classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IISc Bengaluru | Bengaluru | Karnataka | 85.01 | Public | |
| 2 | IIT Madras | Chennai | Tamil Nadu | 82.99 | Public | |
| 3 | IIT Delhi | New Delhi | Delhi | 80.42 | Public | |
| 4 | IIT Bombay | Mumbai | Maharashtra | 77.80 | Public | |
| 5 | IIT Kharagpur | Kharagpur | West Bengal | 71.61 | Public | |
| 6 | IIT Kanpur | Kanpur | Uttar Pradesh | 69.80 | Public | |
| 7 | Homi Bhabha National Institute | Mumbai | Maharashtra | 69.39 | Classified | Public |
| 8 | IIT Roorkee | Roorkee | Uttarakhand | 67.27 | Public | |
| 9 | Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research | Ghaziabad | Uttar Pradesh | 67.15 | Public | |
| 10 | IIT Guwahati | Guwahati | Assam | 64.18 | Public | |
| Rank | Name | City | State | NIRF Score | Budget | Institutional classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IIM Ahmedabad | Ahmedabad | Gujarat | 83.29 | Public | |
| 2 | IIM Bangalore | Bengaluru | Karnataka | 81.56 | Public | |
| 3 | IIM Kozhikode | Kozhikode | Kerala | 79.85 | Public | |
| 4 | IIT Delhi | South Delhi | Delhi | 78.94 | Public | |
| 5 | IIM Lucknow | Lucknow | Uttar Pradesh | 77.97 | Public | |
| 6 | IIM Mumbai | Mumbai | Maharastra | 77.58 | Public | |
| 7 | IIM Calcutta | Kolkata | West Bengal | 77.34 | Public | |
| 8 | IIM Indore | Indore | Madhya Pradesh | 75.68 | Public | |
| 9 | Management Development Institute | Gurugram | Haryana | 71.96 | Private | |
| 10 | XLRI – Xavier School of Management | Jamshedpur | Jharkhand | 70.63 | Private | |
| Rank | Name | City | State | Budget | Institutional classification | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Law School of India University | Bengaluru | Karnataka | Public | ||
| 2 | National Law University, Delhi | New Delhi | Delhi | Public | ||
| 3 | NALSAR University of Law | Hyderabad | Telangana | Public | ||
| 4 | The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences | Kolkata | West Bengal | Public | ||
| 5 | Gujarat National Law University | Gandhinagar | Gujarat | Public |
| Rank | Name | City | State/UT | NIRF Score | Budget | Institutional classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IIT Roorkee | Roorkee | Uttarakhand | 83.95 | Public | |
| 2 | NIT Calicut | Kozhikode | Kerala | 77.89 | ||
| 3 | IIT Kharagpur | Kharagpur | West Bengal | 77.38 | ||
| 4 | IIEST, Shibpur | Howrah | West Bengal | 68.37 | ||
| 5 | Jamia Millia Islamia | New Delhi | Delhi | 67.15 | ||
| 6 | CEPT University | Ahmedabad | Gujarat | 65.73 | Private | |
| 7 | NIT Rourkela | Rourkela | Odisha | 65.72 | Public | |
| 8 | School of Planning and Architecture | New Delhi | Delhi | 65.11 | ||
| 9 | NIT Trichy | Tiruchirappalli | Tamil Nadu | 64.30 | ||
| 10 | Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology | Nagpur | Maharashtra | 61.22 |
| Rank | Name | City | State/UT | NIRF Score | Budget | Institutional classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jamia Hamdard | New Delhi | Delhi | 86.59 | Private, but partially government-funded | |
| 2 | BITS Pilani | Pilani | Rajasthan | 82.28 | Private | |
| 3 | Panjab University | Chandigarh | Chandigarh | 76.39 | Public | |
| 4 | JSS College of Pharmacy, Ooty | Ooty | Tamil Nadu | 76.14 | Private | |
| 5 | National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research(NIPER, Hyderabad) | Hyderabad | Telangana | 75.64 | Public | |
| 6 | Institute of Chemical Technology | Mumbai | Maharastra | 74.77 | Public | |
| 7 | JSS College of Pharmacy, Mysore | Mysore | Karnataka | 73.38 | Private | |
| 8 | Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences | Udupi | Karnataka | 73.25 | Private | |
| 9 | National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research(NIPER, Mohali) | Mohali | Punjab | 70.96 | Public | |
| 10 | SRM Institute of Science and Technology | Chennai | Tamil Nadu | 70.84 | Private | |
The rankings have been criticized as manipulative by students and some academics.[27] In spite of the criticism, the government has done little to modify the methodologies or results of the rankings. The list was criticized for being incomplete and incoherent in 2017.[28] Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi raised objection on 2017 NIRF ranking, accusing it of being based on incomplete data.[29]
In 2021, Professor Anil Kumar Tripathi, director of the Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University criticized the NIRF University rankings, accusing it to compare institutions with same budget but varying number of students. He said that "IISc no doubt, is the top institution in the country. Banaras Hindu University (BHU), however, is a different kind of educational institution. Both institutions have almost the same budget but the same amount of money caters to a large number of students, teachers and infrastructure at BHU. In comparison to IISc the money available is about five to ten times lesser in our university because of the sheer size".[30]
In response to a PIL, on 27 march 2025 Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court puts stay order on publishing NIRF ranking for 2025. PIL petition has claimed that NIRF continuously providing rank and unjustly promoting to multiple number of institutions on the basis of fake and fraud information from past many years without cross-checking, even those institutions failed to meet basic medical education standard. Whole ranking process is based on lack of transprency since NBA collect The data direct from the institution websites without any cross verification for authenticity, resulting in the publication of manipulated data in the ranking list.[31]
On May 10, Madras High Court dismissed the PIL petition and lifted the interim stay on release of NIRF ranking noting that, "Upon reviewing the materials on record, the petition appeared to be premature, as there was insufficient data available to enable a comparison or to assess the accuracy of the rankings."[32]
Another article highlighted that how skewed focus / weightage on few parameters is leading to irrational overall scores and therefore erroneous rankings. In particular, practical signals like "Placement percentage" and "Median compensation awarded to students" are assigned very low weightage, with respect to parameters like "Number of PhD students" and "University Exams".[33]
