NIRF Ranking 2021: Key Parameters Explained for Universities and Colleges

Introduction to NIRF ranking 2021

A quick question for you before we get into NIRF ranking 2021.

What first comes to your mind while choosing a product over the others in the market? It’s obviously the Brand or the Brand Value that lets us decide on a product. Better the value, better are the chances to actions, behaviors, and finally the decision-making process of making a purchase. The concept applies to everything—right from buying cosmetics, clothing, gadgets to even choosing college and career pathways.

It's to outline the Brand Value of colleges in India that our Government came up with the concept of NIRF Ranking Parameters. Found by the Ministry of Human Resource & Development (MHRD) on September 29th, 2015, the National Institutional Ranking Framework’s main objective behind NIRF Ranking criteria is to improve the quality of higher education institutions by ranking them across the country.

But how does NIRF ranks a particular college? Have you thought about it? What are the parameters it includes to decide which university/college is best over others?

The NIRF ranking methodology was outlined by the Core Committee which includes the reputed decision-makers, higher-order thinkers, scholars, and other think factories of India.

The main goal of NIRF lies in recognizing its broad parameters to rank various institutions and universities. The parameters span to cover five main areas including "Teaching, Learning and Resources," "Research and Professional Practices," "Graduation Outcomes," "Outreach and Inclusivity," and "Perception".

NIRF's 5 Ranking Parameters

Teaching, Learning & Resources

Why do you think IIM's and IIT's consistently top the list in the NIRF? The most prominent reason is they are funded and designed by the Government's initiative not only to accomplish a vision to transform India into a land of highly accomplished and proficient technophiles but also to outshine in the teaching methodologies used and the resources maintained.

What also matters the most is the faculty-student ratio, faculty-student strength, and the contributions made by these qualified faculty.

Here are some other sub-parameters that are related to the core activities including Teaching, Learning, & Research. These stress on measuring quantity and quality of faculty, library and lab resources, and general facilities that form the base of institutional excellence.

• Student Strength including Doctoral Students
• Faculty-student ratio with emphasis on permanent faculty (FSR)
• Combined metric for Faculty with Ph.D. (or equivalent) and Experience (FQE)
• Total Budget and Its Utilisation (CBTU)

Research and Professional Practice

"Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought" and one can't agree more with Albert-Szent-Gyorgyi.

The reason behind why institutions are involved in research activities is to explore and bang on an intensive Knowledge Value Creation Strategy that can benefit the faculty, students, and the bigger community at large.

The major ranking parameters of NIRF that pin down the best institutions are professional practices like Research Publication, Development Programs, Patents.
They attempt to compute the quality and quantity of the faculty's research output through IPR generation, alliance with fellow professionals, international databases (like Web of Science, Scopus, Indian Science Index).

The sub-parameters of Research, Professional Practice & Collaborative Performance are;

• Combined metric for Publications (PU)
• Combined metric for Quality of Publications (QP)
• IPR and Patents: Filed, Published, Granted, and Licensed (IPR)
• Footprint of Projects and Professional Practice And Executive Development Programs (FPPP)

Graduation Outcomes

What if there were no inspections to identify the effectiveness of the core teaching and learning done in universities and institutions? Do you think it to be an effective method of instruction? Measuring the same reflects on the graduation rates and on the placement rates. It is these twin factors that decide the future of an institution and is in fact, the most important factor in the NIRF ranking methodology.

The sub-parameters of the graduation outcomes are;

• Combined % for Placement, Higher Studies, and Entrepreneurship (GPHE)
• Metric for University Examinations: GUE
• Median Salary
• Metric for Graduating Students Admitted Into Top Universities (GTOP)
• Metric for Number of Ph.D. Students Graduated GPHD

Outreach and Inclusivity

The real purpose of education lies in its inclusiveness. In simple, the opportunities it creates to invent possibilities for all children irrespective of gender, caste, or race.
IIT Guwahati Assam located in India is now globally known for its distinction in academics. If you may ask which factor decides the ranking of this college, it’s the outreach it has created. It has well-attracted students from all facilities, supported “inclusivity,” by attracting socially, physically, and economically challenged students.

These are sub-parameters of this category are detailed below:

• Percent Students from other states/countries (Region Diversity RD)
• Percentage of Women (WF) + (WS) + (WA)
• Economically and Socially Challenged Students (ESCS)
• Facilities for Physically Challenged Students (PCS)

Perception

The last parameter, Perception in NIRF means Employer and Research Investors and Competitiveness of a college. Perception differs from person to person. A perception that's jointly felt by the public and the stakeholders is worth celebrating. The major factors that help NIRF decide on the ranking of a particular institution are here;

• Peer Perception: Employers and Research Investors (PREMP)
• Peer Perception: Academics (PRACD)
• Public Perception (PRPUB)
• Competitiveness (PRCMP)

Conclusion

If you wish to know more about NIRF Ranking 2021 and how Creatrix Campus could help you, contact us now.