Education rankings: Govt makes it mandatory for public institutes to participate in ranking from next year

As HRD ministry unveiled the third edition of the India Rankings for higher education institutes, the government has made it mandatory for public institutes to participate in the ranking framework from next year. The institutes would face a “cut” in central grants if they failed to do so, the ministry has said.

HRD ministry secretary R Subrahmanyam said this was being done to add some sense of “responsibility” to institutes that receive government funds. Several Delhi University colleges have been put in the list of “defaulters” for failing to submit adequate documents and data for the rankings.

The third edition of the India Rankings continued to see the dominance of IITs, with eight of them featuring in the top 10 list of the best engineering institutes.


IIT Madras was declared the best engineering institute, followed by IIT Bombay.

The Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, topped in the overall and university categories. In the university category, IISC Bengaluru was followed by BHU and JNU. IIM Ahmedabad has landed the top rank among the management institutes.

National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Mohali, is the best in pharmacy category and Miranda House, Delhi University, has landed the top spot again this year in the college category.

While nearly 4,500 institutions (as against 3,000 odd last year) participated in the rankings this year, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said the government is expecting an increase in participation with every passing year. “Only one institute made it to the international ranking of 200. We need to improve on this,” he said.