The National Board of Accreditation (NBA) is also reviewing the parameters to further strengthen the India rankings. At present universities, engineering, medical, law, management are some of the areas of study for which the HEIs are ranked annually under NIRF the list of which is released ahead of the admission season by the ministry of education (MoE). The NAB is learnt to have formed a committee to work on the parameters.
According to a senior official of the MoE, a new category is likely to be added for the open universities (which will also include conventional universities offering online degrees) and language universities of the country. Apart from this, universities working in the field of environment can also apply for ranking.
Stating that the parameters in the ranking system can be increased and a committee has been formed for this, the official said: “The committee is also looking at introducing two new categories in the rankings for institutions offering online/ distance mode courses and language programmes. The additional criteria will be implemented after the committee report comes. Environment can also be a category. Sustainability rankings is another area being looked at, which looks at the environmental and social impacts of higher education institutions.”
Apart from benefiting students applying in such institutions, a ranking system hopefully will also push the institutes to raise their game to earn a decent rank. This is a win-win move.
Along with issues of social concern, institutions doing excellent work in the environmental field can also be brought within the scope of the ranking system, the official said. India ranking of higher education institutions has been given since 2016. Currently, the NBA has fixed October 20 as the last date to apply but that might be extended based on the report of the committee. Last year, a new category – agriculture and allied sector was added to the rankings.
Apart from the overall category, ranking is also in the fields of college and pharmacy. A total of 5,543 institutions had applied for India Ranking 2023, for which the NAB received 8,686 applications in various categories.