OREANDA-NEWS. September 30, 2015. Launching the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) for educational institutions today, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Minister for Human Resource Development said that this would meet a felt need for a framework that would enable parents, students, teachers, educational institutions and other stakeholders to rank institutions on the basis of a set of objective parameters and a transparent process.

Developed by a team of experts in education and heads of institutions, the portal and the framework is presently available for engineering and management institutions. Over the next month, methodologies, parameters and process for ranking universities along with architecture and planning institutions would also be available online.

Speaking on this occasion, the Union Minister said that National Institutional Ranking Framework follows an Indian approach which considers India-centric parameters like diversity and inclusiveness apart from excellence in teaching learning and research. The Minister expressed that this framework for engineering and management institutes will be extended to other disciplines like architecture, pharmacy and humanities and for universities within the next 4 weeks.

The NIRF will facilitate a level playing field in ranking for institutions which have been working in languages other than English and excelled relatively in the recent past. NIRF is an outcome of a need identified by the Hon’ble Prime Minister and a consequent suggestion to evolve a national ranking framework.

The Minister complimented the team of experts engaged in this gigantic task and expressed satisfaction that within one year her Ministry was able to achieve this target. She also highlighted that this will be a step forward in starting a new era of accountability in higher education in the country.

The ranking framework is designed such that institutions belonging to different sectoral fields such as Engineering, Management etc. will be compared separately in their own respective peer groups. The parameters are under the five broad headings (1) teaching learning and resources; (2) research, consulting and collaborative performance; (3) graduation outcomes; (4) outreach and inclusivity and (5) perception.