The government’s 2018 national ranking for colleges and universities is likely to get more competitive as many popular institutions have applied for the first time for inclusion in the list, which will be announced next April. A total of 4,734 institutes across the country are in the fray this year. That’s 1,525 more applicants than the previous year.
THE NEW APPLICANTS
— New Delhi-based St Stephen’s, Hindu and Sri Venkateswara colleges
— All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)
— National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT)
— School of Planning and Architecture’s campuses in the national capital, Bhopal and Vijayawada
The Christian Medical College and Hospital, popularly known as CMC, in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore and the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, are among 100 medical colleges to apply for the rankings.
According to a senior official in the Union human resource development ministry, a number of top Delhi University colleges had earlier skipped the rankings that were introduced in 2015 and announced last year.
RANKING PROCESS
Rankings are given in eight categories — overall rank, engineering, management, architecture, law, medical, pharmacy, and general college.
The ministry prepares the list based on a range of parameters such as teaching and learning resources, and results to judge employability of graduates. Quality of research gets prominence too during the exercise.
The last date to register for the national institutional ranking framework (NIRF) was October 6 this year.
WHAT COLLEGES SAY
— Hindu College’s officiating principal Anju Srivastava said the rankings would help figure out the institute’s strengths and weaknesses.
— According to Sri Venkateswara principal P Hemlatha Reddy, the college missed the deadline for submitting applications in 2016.
The HRD ministry official has said the ranking system is different from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council’s (NAAC) exercise that assesses and accredits institutes of higher education.
