There are several ranking systems in India, aiming to provide valuable insights into the performance of higher education institutions by giving them ranks.
But not all the ranking systems should be believed blindly just because they are prominent for their work as everything has its pros and cons both.
One such ranking system is NIRF, one of the popular ranking systems amongst the students and parents.
Before discussing about NIRF’s critics, first let’s gain knowledge about NIRF and its working.
The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is an initiative by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. It was introduced on September 29, 2015 by the then Union Minister of MoE, Smriti Irani.
NIRF typically publishes its rankings annually. The rankings often declared during the public events conducted by Ministry of Education. This year NIRF released the rankings on August 12, 2024. The whole ranking pdf has been made available for the public in its official website.
Let’s take an overview of some of the top ranked Institutions of India in 2024 as per NIRF:-
1. Overall Category:
- IIT Madras retained its top position, continuing its dominance in Indian higher education.IISc Bengaluru secured the second spot, known for its excellence in research.
- IIT Bombay ranked third, showcasing strong performance across multiple parameters.
2. Universities Category:
- IISc Bengaluru emerged as the top university in India.
- Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi held the second position.
- Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), New Delhi ranked third, reflecting its rising academic standards.
- Delhi University ranked 6th in this category, maintaining its place among the top universities in the country.
3. Colleges Category:
- Hindu College, Delhi topped the list in the college’s category.
- Miranda House, Delhi was ranked second.
- St. Stephen’s College, Delhi secured third place.
There are several other categories on which the Institutions are ranked by NIRF like medical category, management category, engineering category and also some new categories got introduced including Open Universities and Skill Universities etc.
Critics related to NIRF
The main criticism of NIRF is considered to be its parameters on which ranking is set.
There are total of five major parameters, they are:-
- Teaching, Learning and Resources – It judges on the basis of how much is the faculty ratio in the institution, what is the number of total students enrolled in that particular institution and how many faculty members have PhD degrees with them. Also how good is the infrastructural resources like labs and libraries etc.
Critics- Emphasis on parameters like faculty numbers and resources may overlook the actual quality of teaching and learning experiences. Also Institutions with more financial resources can invest in better infrastructure, hence gets higher ranking.
- Research and Professional Practice – In this, NIRF ranking is judged on the basis of how many research papers a particular institution publishes and how many IPR and Patent the institution carries.
Critics- Many private universities forces their professors to publish the required number of research papers every year to increase their NIRF ranking. It hardly matters how the professors are teaching in the classroom, the thing which matters is that how much funding they are utilizing on research papers and how many research papers are they publishing.
- Graduation outcome – It judges on the basis of how many PhD students are graduating and passing their exams and what are the percentage of placements and the average package students are provided.
Critics- It is not focusing on the quality of examination of the institution and if the proper measures are following for conducting the exams or not. It only wants the students to pass the exams whether the student is passing with one retest paper or 10 retest papers.
- Outreach and Inclusivity – It judges on the basis of percentage of students from other states and countries joining the institution and percentage of women and socially and economically challenged students.
Critics- Institutions might artificially increase diversity numbers to improve rankings. Critics also argue that this parameter may only capture surface-level diversity and not the actual inclusivity.
- Peer Perception – It gauges the institution’s reputation through surveys and feedback from peers, employers, and students.
Critics- NIRF does not tell that who all are those peers who becomes the part of the surveys conducted. Subjective quality of survey and lack of transparency can lead to biases.
There are other critics like NIRF focus on how many students are coming to colleges on the daily basis, that’s why most private institutes increases the students minimum attendance percentage to rank higher. Also NIRF focuses on the college land size to rank it.
The rankings serve as a guide for students and parents in selecting institutions for higher education, helping them make informed choices based on various quality indicators and hence it is necessary for ranking system to improve their parameters. Students should not blindly trust on the ranking systems and should make the individual parameters to rank the Institutions. And if then also ranking system matters to the students than they should also take the review from other national and international ranking systems.
As India is growing, it’s high time to grow it’s education system. Rather than focusing on quantity, people should start focusing on quality of education. A focus on quality helps students develop the ability to adapt to changing job markets, especially in a rapidly evolving global economy.
