For the seventh consecutive year, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has emerged as the country’s top institution in the Union government’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), released on September 4. It also retained its crown as India’s premier engineering college for the tenth straight year.

The announcement, however, came with a note of caution from Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who raised doubts about the credibility of the existing methodology—particularly the ‘peer perception’ parameter, which accounts for 10% of the total score. Pradhan argued that this metric often disadvantages government-funded and state-run universities against elite metropolitan institutions.

“Very soon, a new mechanism for institutional ranking will be placed. We will go by the theory of ‘one nation, one data’,” Pradhan said, stressing the need for more objective and comprehensive yardsticks. He suggested inclusion of indicators such as the number of entrepreneurs an institution produces, along with stronger data-driven approaches.

Old champions, fresh challenges

The 2025 rankings once again underscored the dominance of India’s premier institutes. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, led the Universities and Research Institutions categories, while IIM Ahmedabad retained its No. 1 position in Management for the sixth year. AIIMS Delhi topped both Medical and Dental categories, besides featuring eighth in the overall list.

In new categories, IIT Madras was adjudged best for Innovation and Sustainable Development Goals, while Symbiosis Skill and Professional University, Pune, secured the top spot among Skill Universities.

Rising participation, deeper scrutiny

The 10th edition of NIRF saw participation from a growing pool of institutions across 17 categories. This, Pradhan said, reflected the “stable growth” of India’s higher education sector. Still, the rankings face recurring criticism of “regional bias,” particularly from state institutions that trail metro-based peers on perception-based scoring.

Jamia Hamdard topped in Pharmacy, IIT Roorkee in Architecture and Planning, and Hindu College, Delhi, emerged the best college for the second year in a row. The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, continued its dominance in Law, while the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi, led in Agriculture.

Launched in 2016 with just four categories, the NIRF has expanded steadily to cover nine categories and eight subject domains. Yet, as India’s higher education system grows more competitive, the debate around what truly defines “excellence” is only set to intensify.