NIRF Rankings 2025 To Be Announced On September 4; New Categories And Evaluation Rules Introduced

NIRF Rankings 2025: The Ministry of Education has announced that the results of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2025 will be declared on September 4. The 10th NIRF ranking will be released by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) on the official website at nirfindia.org.

Delay Due to Court Stay

This year's rankings were initially postponed following a temporary stay imposed by the Madras High Court over issues of transparency and accuracy of the data. The issue has now been settled, enabling the Education Ministry to move forward with the release of the rankings.

Categories Expanded in 2025

So far, NIRF has ranked institutions in 16 categories, including overall, university, college, engineering, management, pharmacy, medical, law, architecture, dental, and agriculture, among others. Three new categories have been included for 2025:

- Open Universities

- Skill Universities

- State-Funded Public Universities

Institutions will also have the option to be ranked under the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) category, which will deal with sustainability, social impact, and inclusive growth.

Negative Marking for Flawed Research

In a significant policy change, NIRF has implemented negative marking against retracted research papers. Institutions that are found publishing faulty or retracted research will be penalised in their final scores. The action seeks to reinforce research integrity and trustworthiness.

Evaluation Parameters

Institutions will still be evaluated on six parameters:

Teaching, Learning & Resources (30%)

Research and Professional Practice (30%)

Graduation Outcomes (20%)

Outreach and Inclusivity (10%)

Perception (10%)

The weightages may slightly differ based on the institution category.

Importance of Rankings

NIRF rankings provide a benchmark for India's academic quality, helping students, parents, and policy makers in assessing the performance of Indian universities and colleges.