IIT Madras has once again become the number one educational institution of the country while Delhi University’s Miranda House has become the number one among the colleges in the country.

The eighth edition of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) was released on Monday by Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, the Union Minister of State for Education.

As per the rankings, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras retained its position as the top-ranked educational institute in India for the fifth consecutive time. It was followed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru and IIT Delhi. Miranda House, affiliated with the Delhi University (DU), secured the top position among colleges for the seventh consecutive year.

The top 10 institutes in the overall category included IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee, and IIT Guwahati. All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) secured the sixth and tenth positions, respectively.

The rankings covered 13 categories, including overall, university, colleges, engineering, management, pharmacy, law, medical, architecture, dental, research, agriculture, and innovation. The evaluation was based on five parameters: teaching, learning, and resources; research and professional practice; graduation outcomes; outreach and inclusivity; and perception. This year, agriculture and allied sector category was included in the NIRF for the first time.

The number of applications for the rankings increased to 8,686 compared to 7,254 in the previous year. In the overall category, IIT Delhi replaced IIT Mumbai to secure the third position.

In the university category, IISc Bengaluru topped the list, followed by JNU, Jamia Millia Islamia, Jadavpur University, and Banaras Hindu University (BHU). BHU improved its rank and entered the top-five club.

Hindu College, Presidency College (Chennai), PSGR Krishnammal College for Women (Coimbatore), St Xavier’s (Kolkata), Atma Ram Sanatan College (Delhi), and Loyola College (Chennai) were among the top-ranked colleges. Kirori Mal College and Lady Shri Ram College for Women from DU secured the ninth and tenth positions, respectively. St Xavier’s improved its rank to fifth this year, while Loyola College slipped to seventh.

The engineering category was dominated by the IITs, with the top eight positions secured by different IITs. IIT Madras topped the list, followed by IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IIT Roorkee, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Guwahati, and IIT Hyderabad. The National Institutes of Technology in Tiruchirapalli and Jadavpur University secured the ninth and tenth positions, respectively.

In the management category, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad secured first position, followed by IIM Bengaluru and IIM Kozhikode. IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay also made it to the top 10 in this category.

AIIMS Delhi topped the medical category, while Bengaluru’s National Law School of India University secured the first position in the law category, followed by National Law School (Delhi). IIT Kanpur topped the innovation category, and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute secured the first position in the agriculture and allied category.

In the research category, IISc Bengaluru emerged as the best institute, followed by IIT Madras and IIT Delhi. The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research slipped to the tenth position.

The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (Hyderabad) replaced Jamia Hamdard (New Delhi) as the top institute in the pharmacy category.

IITs continued to dominate the architecture category, with IIT Roorkee, IIT Calicut, and IIT Kharagpur emerging as the top three institutions. These institutes showcased their excellence in the field of architecture, further solidifying their reputation in the NIRF rankings.