A Study of National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) and Rankings 2020: Strategic Imperatives for Indian Universities

The article analyses the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) enunciated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India for ranking of higher educational institutions in the country. Its analysis the framework in terms of its five parameters and the 21 sub parameters in terms of its weightages and loading factors respectively. It has been observed that the quantity and quality of publications, Faculty-student ratio, research performance and the Graduation outcomes together account for47% of the total score, which indicates that the framework is likely to be in favour of the relatively the larger and older universities. The correlation analysis of the top 100 universities between age and the scores obtained under the NIRF and NAAC appear to confirm this fact. In view of the analysis, the article suggests expanding the current framework by including a few more parameters such as Competitive academic excellence(civil services and other national competitive examinations such as banking, railways, CAT, CMAT, GATE, NET etc.); National level awards for innovation, entrepreneurship, sports and cultural achievements.