NIRF ranking 2020: IIT-Madras has again become the best engineering colleges. File Photo
NIRF Engineering Colleges Ranking List 2020: IIT-Madras, IISc-Bangalore and IIT-Delhi emerged as the country’s top three institutions for the second year in a row in the fifth edition of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) announced on Thursday by the HRD Ministry.
Jamia Millia Islamia, which was at the centre of the student pushback against the Union government this year, broke into the top 10 universities of the country and improved its rank from 19 to 16 under the overall category. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), which witnessed student protests over fee hike, has maintained its position as the second-best university in the country, after IISc-Bangalore.
The NIRF release came a day after many Indian institutions slipped in QS World University Rankings 2021, including at least 10 marked out by the government under the ‘Institution of Eminence’ scheme.
Referring to the performance in World University Rankings, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said that he did not agree with the use of perception as a performance metric. “Our graduates are now leading global organisations. But our institutions are given low ranks based on perception. I do not agree with this,” he said at the NIRF launch. “We will create a situation when institutes from across the world will want to be listed in the Indian rankings.”
Aside from the overall rankings, NIRF also lists out best institutions across another nine categories — college, university, medical, engineering, management, pharmacy, law, architecture and dental.
The IITs dominated the engineering category by occupying nine out of the top 10 spots. The biggest changes in the top 20 positions in the category were registered by Anna University, which fell five positions from Rank 9 to 14, IIT-Mandi, which dropped out from the top 20 to Rank 31 and NIT Karnataka, which gained eight positions to move up from Rank 21 to 13.
Among universities, improvements were made by Amrita Vidya Vishwapeetham (Rank 8 to 4), BITS-Pilani (from 23 to 15) and Jadavpur University (from 6 to 5). Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) slipped six spots to Rank 17. AMU also ranked lower at 31, as opposed to 18 in 2019, in the overall category this year. The university issued a statement Thursday, attributing the fall to incorrect data entry regarding its PhD scholars by the ranking agency. AMU said it will file a representation with the ministry and NIRF for rectification.
There was a bit of a reshuffle in the college category. While Miranda College retained the top position, Lady Shri Ram College emerged as the second-best from Rank 5 last year and Hindu College dropped from Rank 2 to 3 this year. Presidency College, Chennai, was displaced from the third position to rank 5. Shri Ram College of Commerce slipped from Rank 7 to 12. PSGR Krishnammal College for Women made a significant gain of 12 positions from Rank 22 to enter the top 10.
AIIMS-Delhi, is the country’s top medical institute followed by PGI, Chandigarh and Christian Medical College in Vellore.