NIRF Rankings: Higher Learning Institutes May Have to Take a Screening Test

The Ministry of Human Resource and Development is likely to make it mandatory for all the higher learning institutes to participate in the NIRF or National Institute of Ranking Framework. The government will take the final decision as the number of institutes that participated in the NIRF Ranking 2017 dropped from 3,563 to 2,995. The number was comparatively less than 2016 which was an alarm for enabling the government to encourage more institutes to take part in NIRF Rankings. Therefore, Union HRD Ministry is planning to frame certain rules that mandate institutes of higher learning to participate in the rankings. At the same time, the HRD Ministry is also planning to relax criteria for the rankings. Currently, HRD Ministry is in talks with the University Grants Commission regarding the same.

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According to the statistics of HRD Ministry, there are 39,000 colleges in the country and 11,000 stand-alone institutes. Besides these institutes, there are an additional 760 universities. Altogether, there are 51,000 institutes of higher learning institutes across the country. An official of HRD Ministry revealed that only 6% institutes of higher learning participated in the NIRF Rankings. Lack of awareness on rankings, non-eligibility as per the prescribed criterion and lack of proper documentation are few reasons that are obstructing institutes from taking part in the rankings.

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The ministry further clarified that there will be no changes in the ranking framework and basic parameters. As per the rankings, any university or institutes can score a maximum of 100.