National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a ranking methodology released annually by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, to rank institutions of higher education in India. The framework was approved by the former Ministry of Human Resource Development (now the Ministry of Education) and launched by the Minister on 29 September 2015.
Depending on their areas of operation, institutions have been ranked under 11 different categories – overall, university, colleges, engineering, management, pharmacy, law, medical, architecture, dental and research. The Framework uses several parameters for ranking purposes like resources, research, and stakeholder perception. These parameters have been grouped into five clusters and these clusters were assigned certain weights. These weights depend on the type of institution. About 3500 institutions voluntarily participated in the first round of rankings.
Background
The 2017 rankings were released by MHRD on 3 April 2017. While in its first rankings released in 2016, NIRF had four categories (Universities, Engineering, Management and Pharmacy), in 2017, two more categories namely, Overall and College, were added. Around 3,000 institutions participated in the rankings.
On 3 April 2018, the 2018 NIRF rankings were released with an increased number of participating institutions over the previous year.
The 2019 NIRF ranking was released on 8 April 2019 in 9 categories: Overall, Universities, Engineering, Colleges, Management, Pharmacy, Medical, Architecture, and Law.
For the 2020 rankings, around 3,800 institutions participated in the process, a 20% increase over 2019. The 2020 ranked lists were released by MHRD on 11 June 2020. For the first time, dental institutes were placed in a new category.
Formation
MHRD organized a one-day workshop on 21 August 2014 on evolving methodologies for the ranking of institutions of higher education in India. The meeting resolved to establish a committee for building a national ranking framework. Later it was also decided to appoint representatives of central universities for the proposed committee. Based on these decisions, a core committee consisting of 16 members was constituted on 29 October 2014 with secretary (HE, MHRD, as chairperson and additional secretary (TE), MHRD, as member-secretary. The other members were the vice-chancellors of Delhi University, EFL University, Central University of Gujarat and JNU, the directors of the IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, NIT Tiruchirappalli, NIT Warangal, IIIT&M Gwalior, IISER Bhopal, SPA Delhi, NAAC, and chairperson of NBA.
The terms of reference of the committee were: Suggest a National Framework for performance measurement and ranking of Institutions; Programmes; Suggest the organizational structure, institutional mechanism and processes for implementation along with time-lines of the National Ranking Framework. Suggest a mechanism for financing of the Scheme on National Ranking Framework. Suggest linkages with National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and National Board of Accreditation (NBA), if any.
The core committee identified a set of measurable parameters to be used as metrics for ranking the institutions. These parameters were grouped under five major headings. The committee suggested the weightages to be assigned to various groups of parameters in the case of institutions of engineering education, and left the task of carrying out similar exercises for institutions of other disciplines to other competent agencies. The initial draft of the report was prepared by Surendra Prasad, chairman of the National Board of Accreditation and Member of the core committee.
The University Grants Commission constituted an expert committee on 9 October 2015 to develop a framework for the ranking of universities and colleges in India and the framework developed by this expert committee has been incorporated into NIRF. The core committee also suggested a framework for ranking institutions offering management education also. The All India Council for Technical Education developed parameters and metrics for ranking institutions offering pharmacy education and also architecture education.
Recommendations of the core committee The following are some of the recommendations of the core committee:
The metrics for ranking of engineering institutions should be based on the parameters agreed upon by the core committee. The parameters have been organized into five broad heads or groups and each group has been divided into suitable sub-groups. Each broad head has an overall weight assigned to it. Within each head, the sub-heads should also have appropriate weight distributions. A suitable metric has been proposed which computes a score under each sub-head. The sub-head scores are then added to obtain scores for each individual head. The overall score is computed-based on the weights allotted to each head. The overall score can take a maximum value of 100. The committee recommended the classification of institutions into two categories: Category A institutions: These are institutions of national importance set up by Acts of Parliament, State Universities, Deemed-to-be Universities, Private Universities and other autonomous institutions. Category B institutions: These are institutions affiliated to a University and do not enjoy full academic autonomy.
Parameters and their weightages
Engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture institutions The approved set of parameter groups and the weightages assigned to them in respect of institutions offering programmes in engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture are given in the following table. ParametersCategory A institutions Category B institutionsTeaching, learning and resources (TLR) 0.30 0.30 Research, professional practice and collaborative performance (RPC) 0.30 0.20 Graduation outcome (GO) 0.15 0.25 Outreach and inclusivity (OI) 0.15 0.15 Perception (PR) 0.10 0.10
Overall and colleges The approved set of parameter groups and the weightages assigned to them in respect of overall rating and for colleges are given in the following table, for 2018.
Parameters Overall Colleges Teaching, learning and resources (TLR) 0.30 0.40 Research, productivity, impact and IPR (RPII)0.30 0.15 Graduation outcome (GO) 0.20 0.25 Outreach and inclusivity (OI) 0.10 0.10 Perception (PR) 0.10 0.10
Latest ranking (2025) Note: The India Rankings 2025, released in September 2025, continue NIRF's use of multiple categories including Overall, Universities, Engineering, Management, Medical, Research, Law, Agriculture, Architecture, Pharmacy, and Colleges.
NIRF Overall Ranking 2025 (Top 100) Tamil Nadu (17) Maharashtra (11) Uttar Pradesh (9) Delhi (8) Karnataka (6) Punjab (6) Odisha (5) Telangana (5) West Bengal (4) Rajasthan (4) Uttarakhand (4) Kerala (4) Assam (3) Jammu and Kashmir (3) Chandigarh (2) Andhra Pradesh (2) Madhya Pradesh (2) Bihar (1) Gujarat (1) Himachal Pradesh (1) Pondicherry (1)
Overall (Top 10) RankNameCityState/UTNIRF Score Budget Institutional classification 1 Indian Institute of Technology MadrasChennaiTamil Nadu87.31Public 2Indian Institute of ScienceBengaluruKarnataka85.00Public 3 Indian Institute of Technology BombayMumbaiMaharashtra81.62Public 4Indian Institute of Technology DelhiDelhiDelhi80.67Public 5Indian Institute of Technology KanpurKanpurUttar Pradesh77.25Public 6Indian Institute of Technology KharagpurKharagpurWest Bengal73.99Public 7Indian Institute of Technology RoorkeeRoorkeeUttarakhand71.73Public 8All India Institute of Medical Sciences, DelhiNew DelhiDelhi70.57Public 9Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityNew DelhiDelhi69.62Public 10Banaras Hindu UniversityVaranasiUttar Pradesh68.71Public
Medical (Top 10) RankNameCityState/UTNIRF ScoreBudgetInstitutional classification 1All India Institute of Medical Sciences New DelhiDelhi91.80Public 2Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research ChandigarhChandigarh 82.58Public 3Christian Medical College VelloreTamil Nadu76.48Private 4Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research PondichéryPuducherry73.30Public 5Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences LucknowUttar Pradesh70.09Public 6Institute of Medical Sciences VaranasiUttar Pradesh70.05Public 7National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences BengaluruKarnataka69.77Public 8King George's Medical University LucknowUttar Pradesh68.77Public 9Amrita Vishwa VidyapeethamCoimbatoreTamil Nadu68.52Private 10Kasturba Medical CollegeManipalKarnataka68.05Private
Engineering (Top 10) RankNameCityState/UTNIRF Score Budget Institutional classification 1IIT MadrasChennaiTamil Nadu88.72Public 2IIT DelhiDelhiDelhi 85.74Public 3IIT BombayMumbaiMaharashtra83.65Public 4IIT KanpurKanpurUttar Pradesh81.82Public 5IIT KharagpurKharagpurWest Bengal78.69Public 6IIT RoorkeeRoorkeeUttarakhand 75.44Public 7IIT HyderabadHyderabadTelangana72.31Public 8IIT GuwahatiGuwahatiAssam72.24Public 9NIT TrichyTiruchirapalliTamil Nadu68.14Public 10IIT (BHU)VaranasiUttar Pradesh67.24Public
Universities (Top 10) RankNameCityStateNIRF Score BudgetInstitutional classification 1 Indian Institute of ScienceBengaluruKarnataka85.05Public 2Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityNew DelhiDelhi71.00Public 3Manipal Academy of Higher EducationManipalKarnataka69.25Private 4Jamia Millia IslamiaNew DelhiDelhi69.10Public 5Delhi UniversityNew DelhiDelhi67.38Public 6Banaras Hindu UniversityVaranasiUttar Pradesh67.28Public 7BITS PilaniPilaniRajasthan67.24Private 8Amrita Vishwa VidyapeethamCoimbatoreTamil Nadu67.05Private 9Jadavpur UniversityKolkataWest Bengal65.42Public 10Aligarh Muslim UniversityAligarhUttar Pradesh65.35Public
Research Institutions (Top 10) Rank Name City State NIRF Score Budget Institutional classification 1 IISc Bengaluru Bengaluru Karnataka 85.01 Public 2IIT Madras Chennai Tamil Nadu 82.99Public 3 IIT Delhi New Delhi Delhi 80.42 Public 4 IIT Bombay Mumbai Maharashtra 77.80 Public 5IIT Kharagpur Kharagpur West Bengal 71.61 Public 6 IIT Kanpur Kanpur Uttar Pradesh 69.80 Public 7 Homi Bhabha National Institute Mumbai Maharashtra 69.39 ClassifiedPublic 8 IIT Roorkee Roorkee Uttarakhand 67.27 Public 9 Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research Ghaziabad Uttar Pradesh 67.15 Public 10 IIT Guwahati Guwahati Assam 64.18 Public
Management (Top 10) RankNameCityStateNIRF Score BudgetInstitutional classification 1IIM AhmedabadAhmedabadGujarat83.29Public 2 IIM BangaloreBengaluruKarnataka81.56Public 3IIM KozhikodeKozhikodeKerala79.85Public 4IIT DelhiSouth DelhiDelhi78.94Public 5IIM LucknowLucknowUttar Pradesh77.97Public 6IIM MumbaiMumbaiMaharastra77.58Public 7 IIM CalcuttaKolkataWest Bengal77.34Public 8IIM IndoreIndoreMadhya Pradesh75.68Public 9Management Development InstituteGurugramHaryana71.96Private 10XLRI – Xavier School of ManagementJamshedpurJharkhand70.63Private
Law (Top 10) RankNameCityState/UTBudget Institutional classification 1National Law School of India UniversityBengaluruKarnataka Public 2National Law University, DelhiDwarkaDelhiPublic 3NALSAR University of LawHyderabadTelanganaPublic 4The West Bengal National University of Juridical SciencesKolkataWest BengalPublic 5Gujarat National Law UniversityGandhinagar Gujarat Public 6IIT KharagpurKharagpur West Bengal Public 7Symbiosis Law SchoolPuneMaharashtra Private 8Jamia Millia IslamiaNew DelhiDelhiPublic 9Aligarh Muslim UniversityAligarh Uttar Pradesh Public 10Siksha 'O' AnusandhanBhubaneswar Odisha Private
Architecture and Planning (Top 10)