Monday, April 04, 2016

National Institutional Ranking Framework, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India

This is related to - National Institutional Ranking Framework

GOI’s MHRD has published the rankings of Indian educational institutions in four categories namely Universities, Engineering, Management and Pharmacy. It is probably the first time a GOI agency has attempted to rank the institutions across the nation. Normally the magazines like Outlook, Data Quest etc., publish the annual rankings in a special issue. Now the government has come out with the rankings as well. This is a good move.

I went to check the ranking of my Alma-mater BITS, Pilani. It was missing from the engineering list. That was surprising as it is consistently ranked in the top ten in the ranking surveys conducted by other agencies. Later found that it is listed in the universities section and ranked #9. It sort of made sense as BITS,Pilani, although very well known as a top engineering college, it offers education in lot more subjects than only in the engineering subjects. It offers UG, PG, PhD level education in pharmacy, pure sciences, humanities, English, Finance, MBA, interdisciplinary studies like Sci & Tech development, Engineering Tech, General Studies and also in Museum Studies. Probably the only one or one of the very few universities offering education in museum studies. BITS, Pilani also has four campuses (Pilani, Hyd, Goa, Duabi). It also offers excellent education and an array of degrees via distance education. So with all these offerings and specialties, it is not totally inappropriate that it was considered among universities and ranked there and not among engineering colleges. But, as it happened to me, most people will find something really missing when they check out the ranking list of engineering institutes and not find BITS, Pilani.

Glad to find BITS, Pilani ranked #9 among ALL universities in India. Congrats! Well deserved! Great accomplishment for a 100% private institution! 100% meritocracy! No reservation quotas! It’s the only private institution in the top 10.

It’s quite interesting to go through the ranking lists. Somewhat different from the rankings published by other sources. Some top business schools like Bajaj are missing. Some surprises - Vellore Institute of Technology, at #13, is ranked higher than most of the NITs. Looks it is a new institution which has done well in recent years. SJCE, Mysore is missing from the engineering list. But figures in the universities list at rank 35. NIE, Mysore is at #96.

Since it was voluntary,  it looks like some colleges and universities did not complete the application process and missed out on an opportunity to be ranked. Or they did not make into the top 100.

One thing that is disappointing is none of the colleges and universities from Dharwad, my hometown and a leading center of education, figure in any ranking list. I don’t know whether they did not participate or did not make the cut. Either way, very disappointing that none of the institutions from Dharwad, the town renowned for education, appear in any of the lists. For that matter no institution from North Karnataka (NK) is in top 100, except a Pharmacy college from Gulbarga. This is sad despite NK having some really good engineering colleges, MBA colleges and universities. Hope some of them will make into the top 100 in the future.

https://www.nirfindia.org/Ranking (scroll down to see the rankings)

(Copied from Facebook status.)

3 comments:

sunaath said...

Congratulations to BITS, Pilani. If considered as an engg. college only, the ranking would have been still higher, I believe. The SDM engg. college in DWD and the BVB engg. college in Hubballi are good enough but may not come within 100.

Mahesh Hegade said...

Thanks Sunaath Sir. Ranking would have been around the same, 8 or 9, after the old IITs. But, it would have been more apt to be ranked in the engg. college category.

S. Bhava said...


A similar ranking of psychiatric specialty institutes would be useful.