The BRICS TimesFor the seventh year in a row, IIT Madras leads NIRF 2025 rankings; IIM Ahmedabad continues to head management category. Southern states dominate higher education performance.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has once again secured the top spot in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2025, marking its seventh consecutive year as the nation’s leading institution overall. It has also held on to its distinction as India’s best engineering college for the tenth year running, ever since the framework was launched in 2016. Mirroring last year’s results, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru has been placed second in the overall list, while IIT Bombay has taken the third position.
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, continues to be the first non-engineering institution in the overall Top 10, ranked eighth this year after dropping one place from seventh. The IITs in Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, and Roorkee occupy the next four slots, while Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi climbed up to ninth and tenth positions respectively.
The rankings were unveiled by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar, who released results across 17 categories of higher education institutions (HEIs). These included fields such as engineering, management, medicine, law, research, agriculture, universities, and colleges. A record 14,163 institutions participated in this 10th edition of the NIRF.
Evaluation under NIRF is carried out across 19 parameters grouped into five key heads: Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR) and Research and Professional Practice (RP) each hold 30% weightage, Graduation Outcomes (GO) contribute 20%, while Outreach and Inclusivity (OI) and Perception (PR) carry 10% each. These proportions shift slightly depending on the category assessed.
This year’s ranking introduced a new dimension, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) category, where IIT Madras also took the number one position. The SDG ranking looked at institutions based on their environmental responsibility and sustainability efforts. The SDGs were set by the United Nations in 2015 as 17 objectives aimed at reducing poverty, tackling inequality, and addressing climate change by 2030.
Commenting on the achievement, IIT Madras Director V Kamakoti said, “Our success comes from working in a cohesive, coordinated, and focused manner on goals set under a five-year strategic plan. We strictly adhered to this roadmap, with faculty, staff, students, alumni, industry partners, government funding agencies, and the education ministry all contributing in a highly coordinated way. This collective effort has helped us.”
In the university category, IISc Bengaluru and JNU retained their first and second ranks, while Manipal Academy of Higher Education rose to third, moving up from fourth place last year. The most notable jump came from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, which surged from 19th in 2024 to seventh in 2025, largely due to a sharp improvement in its perception score — rising from 19.68 out of 100 last year to 49.19 this year.
BITS Pilani Vice-Chancellor Prof. V Ramgopal Rao remarked, “The NIRF 2025 rankings reflect the efforts of our faculty, students, alumni, and staff. At BITS Pilani, we continue to focus on academic rigor and real-world application. Our movement in rankings across categories is an indication of our strategic approach.”
In the management category, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad retained its leadership for the sixth straight year. Commenting on the accomplishment, IIM Ahmedabad Director Prof. Bharat Bhasker said, “This achievement reflects the unwavering commitment of our faculty, students, and alumni towards academic excellence, impactful research, and meaningful contributions to society. Our strong focus on research and innovation continues to shape new ideas and solutions that influence both academia and industry, while reinforcing IIMA’s role as a thought leader in management education.”
In other categories, AIIMS New Delhi continued to be the premier institution in medicine, while the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, topped the law list. Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, held the number one spot in pharmacy for the second year in succession. Among colleges, Hindu College of Delhi University secured the top position, with institutions from the capital accounting for six out of the top 10 slots nationwide.
The rankings of the top 50 state public universities further highlight regional strengths, with 22 institutions from southern states making the list, including 10 from Tamil Nadu alone. Northern states contributed 18 universities, while Maharashtra, West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat collectively accounted for 10. Several states, including Bihar, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and most northeastern states (except Assam), along with Union Territories such as Ladakh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and Puducherry, were absent from the rankings, underlining significant geographical disparities in India’s higher education ecosystem.
For the first time, the National Board of Accreditation (NBA), which manages NIRF, introduced a system of negative marking for institutions linked to retracted research papers. NBA Chairperson Anil Sahasrabudhe explained, “This year we introduced negative marking for retracted papers and their citations — a double whammy. Institutions are warned to be truthful and honest in their publications. If unethical practices persist, the penalty weightage will rise, and repeat offenders may even face debarment from the rankings.”
During the launch event, Education Minister Pradhan urged institutions to act as breeding grounds for innovation and entrepreneurship. “There are nearly 1.5 lakh startups successfully running from campuses of Indian higher campuses. The entrepreneurship ecosystem finds a minor weightage under the perception parameter of NIRF. We need to revisit this,” he said.
