All Higher Education Institutions Must Come Under NIRF Rankings: Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan

Bengaluru:Students and parents have the rights to know the quality, performance and strengths of an academic institution before pursuing higher education, Union Minister for Education, Dharmendra Pradhan has said after releasing the NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) rankings on Monday.

“Rankings, ratings and accreditation is a vital recommendation of NEP (National Education Policy) 2020. It is heartening that NIRF rankings deeply reflect the spirit of NEP,” Pradhan has said.

Congratulating the institutions that figured in the NIRF rankings, the Minister said that all the 58,000 higher education institutions in the country must come under the ranking and rating framework.

“Employability and skills are a priority. Our ranking mechanism must also include skilling as a parameter. Intangible aspects are powerful stimulus to learning and development. We should devise mechanisms to bring intangible aspects of education in the rankings framework,” Pradhan has said.

In a release, the Union Education Ministry said that in the 9^th NIRF ranking list, four distinct additions were made. This time, three new categories namely State Public Universities, Open Universities, and Skill Universities were added, while “Innovation” as a category has also been introduced using NIRF framework.

“A total number of 6,517 unique institutions offered themselves for ranking under ‘Overall’, category-specific and 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 or 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,” Ministry of Education said in a release.

These institutions were evaluated based on five broad categories of parameters. Teaching, Learning & Resources, Research and Professional Practice, Graduation Outcome, Outreach and Inclusivity, and Perception were those parameters on which these institutions were ranked in the list.