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National Institutional Ranking Framework, 2018

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April 10, 2018

Why in news?

Ministry of Human Resource Development recently released the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2018.

What is NIRF?

  • The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) was approved by the MHRD and launched in 2015.
  • The framework outlines a methodology to rank institutions across the country.
  • The parameters broadly cover -
  1. Teaching, Learning and Resources
  2. Research and Professional Practices
  3. Graduation Outcomes
  4. Outreach and Inclusivity
  5. Perception
  • There were a total of 9 categories this year under which India’s higher education institutions were judged.
  • The 2018 exercise newly added the disciplines of law, medicine and architecture.

What are the latest rankings?

  • The ranking of most colleges and universities have remained almost the same this year.
  • Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, is again ranked first in both overall and university categories.
  • The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are the best among engineering institutes.
  • The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are the best among management institutes.
  • This is for the third time in row on the NIRF ranking that IITs and IIMs are leading.
  • IIT-Madras was adjudged the best engineering institute.
  • IIM-Ahmedabad was adjudged the best management institute.
  • The All India Institute of Medical Sciences was adjudged the top medical college.
  • There were some institutes, which could not be placed in any of the 9 categories.
  • These have been placed in special category because of the quality of research work.
  • Some of them include the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, etc.

What are the concerns?

  • Participation - India has around 860 universities, 40,000 colleges and 11,600 standalone institutions of higher education.
  • Of these, only around 4,500 institutes took part in the India Rankings 2018.
  • Even among the institutions that participated, there is a clear skew towards southern, south-eastern and western India.
  • The government is planning to cut some sort of funding to those which do not participate in the rankings.
  • Parity - Older institutions with historical advantages now enjoy a higher ranking.
  • This obscures newer entrants who may have stronger claims to excellence.
  • Approach - The ranking approach worldwide is critiqued for failing to capture the crucial metric of learning outcomes.
  • The rankings instead rely on proxy data on faculty strength and qualifications.

What is the way forward?

  • Funding - The governing bodies should make available adequate financial and academic resources to colleges.
  • This is particularly essential for the developing colleges, to help them improve performance.
  • Participation - Ranking educational and research institutes has some significant practical uses.
  • It helps students make study choices, sponsors to identify research projects, and other universities to form partnerships.
  • Thus, for a reliable and relevant process, all recognised educational institutions should be enrolled, and not just the public ones.
  • Objective - Beyond competitive ranking, the higher order goal is to foster learning and scholarship.
  • Encouraging faculty to exercise complete academic freedom is essential to achieve this.
  • The NIRF ranking thus needs a fine tuning to incorporate these aspects.

 

Source: Business Standard, The Hindu

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