On the first Monday of April 2016, India will have its own ranking system--the National Institutional Ranking Framework-- for higher educational institutions that will cover all institutes offering courses in management, engineering, law, and humanities.
The ranking system, tailored for the Indian institutions that are otherwise placed far too low on the global ranking lists, will mark institutions on the basis of five major parameters, which include teaching, learning resources; research, consulting, collaborative performance; graduation outcomes; outreach and inclusivity and perception. There will be subheads under each of these five categories to rank the institutions, for instance under the teaching, learning and resources head, institutes will be graded on the basis of faculty-student ratio, faculty with Ph.D and experience, laboratory, sports and extra curricular facilities.
Released by Minister for Human Resource Development Smriti Irani on Tuesday, the framework takes into account aspects of education that are India-centric, for instance, inclusive education through reservation, research in languages other than English and upcoming private institutions.
A core committee that included National Board of Accreditation Chairman Surendra Prasad, IIT-Kharagpur director P.P. Chakraborty, IIT-Madras Director Bhaskar Ramamurthi, besides the Higher Education Secretary and HRD Ministry officials have drafted the framework. The methodology of ranking is open to all Indian institutions that wish to be part of the system, but is not mandatory; it is also aimed at empowering the institutions to compete for international ranking systems like QS and Times.
