While Indian Institute of Science (IISC) Bangalore is ranked the best university in India, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) are among the top 10 universities in the country, according to
the NIRF rankings released by the HRD Ministry on Thursday.
As per the annual rankings, the top three universities are IISc Bangalore, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Banaras Hindu University. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham emerged as the 4th best university in the country and 7th among medical colleges category in India.
Delhi University (DU) marginally improved its ranking among the universities and in the “Overall” category. However, it is behind the JMI in both categories in the annual rankings announcement delayed by Covid-19.
The JMI had become the epicenter of protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) after police barged into the campus and allegedly attacked students studying inside the library on December 15 last year.
The JNU witnessed protests over a hostel fee hike for over two months with the students boycotting classes and exams. The university also witnessed violence on January 5 when unidentified persons, wearing masks and armed with rods, sledgehammers and sticks, attacked students and teachers inside the campus.
It is the first time that the JMI has been placed among the top 10 universities in the NIRF rankings, the institute said. It has been given the 10th rank in the country in the “Universities” category. Last year, it was ranked 12th.
The JMI is placed at 10th in the universities category, jumping two places from 12th last year. The Law Faculty of JMI has been ranked 9th among law colleges and the Faculty of Architecture and Ekistics is ranked at 10th position in Architecture.
The IITs, IIMs, IISc and other top technical institutions and universities are included in the “Overall” category. The top 10 higher education institutions in the country included seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
IIM Ahmedabad has been ranked as the top B-School in the country, followed by IIM Bangalore and Calcutta.
Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank announced that Miranda College bagged the top rank among colleges, followed by Lady Sri Ram College for Women, Hindu College and St Stephen’s College.
As per the rankings, the top three engineering colleges in the country are IIT Madras, IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay.
In the pharmacy category, the top institute is Jamia Hamdard in Delhi, followed by Panjab University, Chandigarh. The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research, Mohali, stood third.
In the medical college’s category, AIIMS Delhi bagged the top spot, followed by PGI, Chandigarh, and CMC, Vellore.
“These rankings act as a guide to students for selection of universities based on a set criteria and helps universities to improve their performance on various ranking parameters and identify gaps in research and areas of improvement. This exercise has also created a habit of organising data by the institutions and most of all these institutions attempt themselves to become more competitive,” Nishank said.
The ranking framework evaluates institutions on five broad generic groups of parameters -- Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR), Research and Professional Practice (RP), Graduation Outcomes (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI) and Perception (PR). Ranks are assigned based on the total sum of marks assigned for each of these five broad groups of parameters.
The Dental colleges in the country were ranked for the first time by NIRF. Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences, Manipal College of Dental Sciences and DY Patil Vidyapeeth were ranked the top three dental colleges.
A total of 3,771 universities and higher educational institutions across the country participated in the ranking process.
