Page 7 - NIRF 2023

and improving overall student experience. While at institutional level, the data and its analytics can help in assessing

institutions themselves against internal benchmarks, at the national level, the data can serve as a base for analysis of
status of higher education institutions in the country.

It is important that the credibility that the India Rankings have earned is maintained with careful attention to details.
As a matter of practice, 100 institutions are ranked in Overall and Universities since inception of these two categories.

While number of institutions that are being ranked in Engineering is 100, however, 100 engineering institutions are
ranked in two rank band of 50 each, number of institutions ranked in Management and Pharmacy have also been
increased from 75 to100 each from 2022 onwards. However, number of institutions ranked are restricted between 30

and 75 in subject domains namely Architecture & Planning, Law, Medical, Dental, Research Institutions and
Agriculture and Allied Sectors.

All data for ranked institutions is painstakingly verified. Inconsistencies, contradictions and outliers are screened and
identified with due diligence and patience. Institutions have to be dealt with tactfully as they feel offended with direct

and blunt questions on validity of data submitted by them. It requires a lot of patience in educating individual
institutions on the quality requirements of the data submitted by them. NIRF Team has made extensive use of
triangulation methods for detecting aberrations, contradictions and inconsistencies and effecting corrections in
consultation with the concerned institution. Persistent emphasis on accuracy of data on the part of NIRF has yielded

positive results with change in tendency of institutions to present inflated numbers. With continuing improvement in
reliability of data from institutions, it would be possible for NIRF team to concentrate on refining existing ranking

parameters and metrics and pursuit for additional parameters that can be deployed for ranking of institutions.
Moreover, it would also be possible to bring-in larger number of institutions into the ambit of rankings with a goal of
ranking every deserving institution.

Besides, sourcing data on various parameters from applicant institutions, third party sources of data have also been

used, wherever possible. Scopus (Elsevier Science) and Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) were used for retrieving
data on publications, citations, and highly cited publications. Derwent Innovation was used for retrieving data on
patents. Data retrieved from these sources was shared with the institutions for transparency with a provision to give
their inputs in case they are not agreeable to the data retrieved from the third party sources.

The ranking framework evaluates institutions on five broad generic groups of parameters, i.e. Teaching, Learning and

Resources (TLR), Research and Professional Practice (RP), Graduation Outcome (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI) and
Perception (PR). Ranks are assigned based on total sum of marks secured by HEIs for each of these five broad groups of
parameters. Performance of ranked institutions can be seen on any of the five broad groups of parameters. A 5-

dimensional view of institutions across the 5 broad generic groups of parameters provides relative strengths of the
institution. Moreover, positive, and strong correlation is observed between rank of institutions based on all the five
broad generic groups of parameters and its rank on the basis of “Research and Professional Practice (RP)”.

It can also be observed that public-funded institutions including CFTIs, and a few centrally funded universities hog

most of the top-ranks in almost all categories of rankings. Moreover, a significant number of state and privately funded
universities and institutions appear in top 100 ranks in various categories and subject domains of ranking.

India Rankings 2023 iii