During the maiden year of India Rankings 2016 by NIRF, rankings were announced for Universities as well as for three domain-specific rankings, namely Engineering, Management and Pharmacy. Over the period of nine years, seven new categories and five new subject domains were added to bring the total tally to eight categories, namely Overall, Universities, Colleges, Research Institutions, State Public Universities, Open Universities, Skill Universities and Innovation Institutions and 8 subject domains, namely Engineering, Management, Pharmacy, Architecture & Planning, Medical, Law, Dental and Agriculture and Allied Sectors.
This year’s edition is the 9th consecutive edition of India Rankings of HEIs in India 2024. It has four distinct additions . They are as follows:
- Introduction of three new categories namely State Public Universities, Open Universities, and Skill Universities; and
- Integration of “Innovation” ranking into the India Rankings using NIRF framework.
With the addition of three categories, i.e. Open Universities, State Public Universities and Skill Universities, the existing portfolio of India Rankings has increased to 16 categories and subject domains that have been ranked in India Rankings 2024.
Five Broad Categories of Parameters and Weightage
The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), launched in November 2015 by the Ministry of Education, was used for this edition as well as for the previous eight editions of India Rankings released for the years 2016 to 2023. Five broad categories of parameters identified in the NIRF and their weightage on scale of 10 are given below:
|
Sl. No. |
Parameter |
Marks |
Weightage |
|
1 |
Teaching, Learning & Resources |
100 |
0.30 |
|
2 |
Research and Professional Practice |
100 |
0.30 |
|
3 |
Graduation Outcome |
100 |
0.20 |
|
4 |
Outreach and Inclusivity |
100 |
0.10 |
|
5 |
Perception |
100 |
0.10 |
Each of these five parameters have 2 to 5 sub-parameters. A total number of 18 parameters are used for ranking of HEIs in different categories and subject domains. Institutions are ranked based on total sum of marks assigned for each of these five broad groups of parameters.
Besides, sourcing data on various parameters from applicant institutions, third party sources of data have also been used, wherever possible. Scopus (Elsevier Science) and Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) were used for retrieving publications and citations data. Derwent Innovation was used for retrieving data on patents. Data retrieved from these sources was shared with the institutions for transparency with a provision to give their inputs.
Increase in Number of Applicants for India Rankings from 2016 to 2024
A total number of 6,517 unique institutions offered themselves for ranking under “Overall”, category-specific and / or domain-specific rankings for India Rankings 2024. In all, 10,845 applications for ranking were made by these 6,517 unique institutions under various categories / domains including 2,781 in Overall Category, 1,463 in Engineering, and 3,371 in General Degree Colleges. A noticeable increase in institutional participation in the rankings exercise this year indicates its recognition amongst institutions of higher education in India as a fair and transparent ranking exercise. Number of unique applicants to India Rankings have increased from 2,426 in 2016 to 6,517 in 2024 whereas total number of applications for ranking in various categories have increased from 3,565 in 2016, to 10,845 in 2024 i.e. total increase of 4091 (168.63% increase) in number of unique institutions and 7,280 (204.21% increase) in total number of applicants.
Increase in Number of Institutions Ranked in India Rankings from 2016 to 2024
Historically, 100 institutions have been ranked in the Overall, Universities, Engineering and College categories since inception of India rankings. In addition, 100 institutions each are ranked in Overall and Universities categories in two rank bands of 50 each. 200 additional institutions each are ranked in Engineering and Colleges in three rank bands consisting of two rank bands of 50 each, i.e. 100-150 and 151-200 and one rank band of 100 each i.e. 201-300. In Management and Pharmacy, the numbers of ranked institutions were increased from 75 to 100 each from 2022 onwards with additional 25 institutions each ranked in these two disciplines in a rank band of 25 each. For subject domains such as Architecture & Planning, Law, Medical, Dental, Research Institutions, Agriculture & Allied Sectors, the number of ranked institutions ranges from 40 to 50.
As far as newly introduced categories are concerned, 50 State Public Universities are ranked this year with additional 50 in rank band of 51-100. However, only three institutions each are ranked in the Open Universities and Skill Universities categories. In case of Innovation Institutions, while 10 institutions are ranked, addition 40 institutions are ranked in rank bands of 11-50.
