June 11: Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, today released “India Rankings 2020” of Institutions of Higher Education in various categories on the basis of their performance on five broad categories of parameters. The Minister released India Rankings 2020 virtually in 10 categories in the presence of Minister of State for HRD ,Shri Sanjay Dhotre. Additional Secretary (Higher Education),Shri Rakesh Ranjan, MHRD; Chairman UGC, Prof. D. P. Singh; Chairman, AICTE Anil Sahasrabudhe; Chairman NBA, Prof. K.K. Aggarwal; Member Secretary NBA, Dr. Anil Kumar Nassa, and representatives of Higher Education Institutions witnessed the release through video conferencing.This is the fifth consecutive edition of India Rankings of the institutions of higher education in India. In 2020, an addition to nine rankings ie one domain “Dental” has been introduced for the first time bringing the total tally to 10 categories / subject domains.
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that these rankings acts as a guide to students for selection of universities based on a set of criteria and helps universities to improve their performance on various ranking parameters and identify gaps in research and areas of improvement. He added that the Ranking of Institutions at national level instill a competitive spirit amongst institutions to perform better and secure higher rank in international ranking.
Shri Pokhriyal said that the Ministry of HRD has taken this important initiative of creating a National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), which is being used for past five years for ranking of institutions of higher education in different categories and domains of knowledge and it is indeed a source of encouragement for all of us. He said that this exercise has also created a habit of organizing the data by the institutions and most of all these institutions attempt themselves to become more competitive. The Minister was happy to observe that broad categories of parameters identified in the NIRF have successfully captured all the important aspects of teaching, learning and resources, research and professional practice, graduate outcomes etc. in institutions of higher education.
The Minister was happy to learn that country-specific parameters relevant to the Indian situation such as regional diversity, outreach, gender equity and inclusion of disadvantaged sections of the society are included in the ranking methodology. All parameters and sub-parameters are duly normalized so keep them “size-independent” and “age-independent” so that large and old institutions do not get undue advantages. Shri Pokhriyal said that it is indeed befitting that besides Overall ranking, category-specific rankings are done for colleges and universities and subject-specific rankings are done for Engineering, Management, Pharmacy, Architecture, Law and Medicine. A new subject domain, i.e. “Dental” is introduced from 2020 onwards.
Shri Nishank said that in order to provide facility of online practicing in the difficult time of COVID-19, NTA recently launched National Test Abhyas app for JEE and NEET students and around 65 lakhs students have already downloaded the app for practicing online test.
The Minister congratulated the officials of the Ministry, Member Secretary National Board of Accreditation and his team at NBA and at INFLIBNET Centre for uninterrupted release of India Rankings for the last five years. He also congratulated the Institutions that have secured first three positions in various categories and subject domains.
Minister of State for HRD Shri Sanjay Dhotre also congratulated to institutes who secured top ranks in “India Rankings 2020” and encouraged all other institutes who could not secure top ranks this year. He said that participation in such ranking framework shows the confidence of the institution and taking participation is the first step of success, it boost the confidence of the institution. Shri Dhotre said that ranking is necessary for transparency and healthy competition.He also exhorted higher education institutions to help their students who suffer from some learning deficit since their school days, and address such deficits in a fundamental manner. He added that we must ensure everyone’s all-round development.
The ranking framework evaluates institutions on five broad generic groups of parameters, i.e. Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR), Research and Professional Practice (RP), Graduation Outcomes (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI) and Perception (PR). Ranks are assigned based on total sum of marks assigned for each of these five broad groups of parameters
Besides, sourcing data on various parameters from applicant institutions, third party sources of data have also been used, wherever possible. Scopus (Elsevier Science) and Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) were used for retrieving publications and citations data. Derwent Innovation was used for retrieving data on patents. Data retrieved from these sources was shared with the institutions for transparency with a provision to give their inputs.
A total number of 3771 unique institutions offered themselves for ranking under “Overall”, category-specific and / or domain-specific rankings for India Rankings 2020. In all, 5805 applications for ranking were made by these 3771 unique applicant institutions under various categories / domains, which include 294 Universities, 1071 Engineering Institutions, 630 Management Institutions, 334 Pharmacy Institutions, 97 Law Institutions, 118 Medical Institutions, 48 Architecture Institutions and 1659 General Degree Colleges. A noticeable increase in institutional participation in the rankings exercise this year indicating its recognition amongst institutions of higher education in India as a fair and transparent ranking exercise. Number of unique applicants to India Rankings have increased from 3127 in 2019 to 3771 in 2020 whereas total number of applications for ranking in various categories have increased from 4873 in 2019, to 5805 in 2020 i.e. total increase of 644 unique institutions and 932 total applicants.
As a matter of practice, 200 institutions are ranked in engineering discipline, 100 institutions are ranked in Overall, University and College categories, 75 each in Management and Pharmacy, 40 in Medical and 20 each in Architecture and Law and 30 institutions are ranked in Dental for the first time. Additional rankings in suitably bunched forms are also being provided. Data for ranked institutions were painstakingly verified, inconsistencies, contradictions and outliers were screened and identified, which requires a lot of diligence, patience and tactful handling of institutions.
Source: PIB
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