IIT-M top education institute, IISc Bengaluru best univ: Govt ranking

Delhi's Miranda House India's best college, says education ministry

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras is India’s best educational institute, according to a government ranking that put the premier engineering college at the top for the fourth consecutive year.

IIT Madras (pictured) led in “overall” and “engineering” categories, according to the Ministry of Education’s National Insti­tutional Rankings Framework (NIRF) 2021. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, top­ped the universities category for the fourth year in a row, and Ind­ian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad led in the management category for the third year.

Among universities, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Jadavpur University and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham came second, third, fourth and fifth. In the overall category, IISc Bengaluru, IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur bagged second, third, fourth and fifth ranks, retaining their slots from last year.

In research, a new category this year, IISc, IIT Madras and IIT Delhi bagged the top three positions. Among engineering institutes, IIT Madras was followed by IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur and IIT Kharagpur, in that order. The institutes retained their spots from last year. IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta retained their second and third spots among business schools, while IIT Delhi overtook IIM Kozhikode for the fourth slot.

In the architecture category, IIT Roorkee, National Institute of Technology Calicut and IIT Kha­ragpur maintained their top three ranks for the second time in a row. The Bengaluru-based National Law School of India University and National Law University Delhi continued to be top two in law, while Pune-based Symbiosis Law School jumped six places from last year to be ranked third.

Among colleges, Delhi Uni­versity’s (DU) Miranda House retained its first rank. Hindu Col­lege (DU), Chennai’s Presidency College and Loyola College, and Lady Shri Ram College for Wom­en (DU) were ranked second, thi­rd, fourth and fifth respectively.

Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai, rose from third place last year to emerge as the top dental college, with Manipal College for Dental Sciences and Dr D Y Patil Vidyapeeth dropping one place each to second and third spots.

Launched in 2015, the NIRF rankings have over the years grown from three to 11 categories this year — overall, university, engineering, management, colleges, medical, pharmacy, architecture, law, dental colleges, and research. In all, as many as 7,254 entries were made by 4,786 unique applicant institutions under various categories and subject domains.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that of roughly 40,000-50,000 colleges, only 8,000-8,500 were accredited with the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). “Going forward, all institutions need to be part of the NIRF, NAAC and National Board of Accreditation through self-declaration,” he said.