New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has ranked first among all higher educational institutes in the country for the seventh consecutive year in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2025 announced Thursday.
The Union Education Ministry released the ninth edition of the NIRF on Monday, ranking higher education institutions in 17 categories—an increase from 16 in 2024 after the addition of ‘Sustainability Development Goals’ (SDG). This year, a total of 14,163 institutions participated in the rankings, up from 10,885 last year.
In the ‘Overall Category’, IIT Madras ranked first, followed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru, IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee, AIIMS Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and Banaras Hindu University—making up the top 10 institutions.
IIT Madras director V.Kamakoti said that IIT Madras also secured first rank in the category of SDGs, which was introduced this year. “Being a topper consistently is a result of a collective, cohesive and focused team effort. Thanking the Almighty for blessing us with such a wonderful team. Together, we pledge to put in our best efforts towards Viksit Bharat@2047,” he said.
@iitmadras Shines Again in NIRF 2025!
Setting benchmarks year after year, IIT Madras continues its legacy of excellence in education, research, and innovation.
🏆 NIRF India Rankings 2025
🔹 Overall – 1st (for the 7th consecutive year)
🔹 Engineering – 1st (for the 10th… pic.twitter.com/JQ3vo88tiS
— IIT Madras (@iitmadras) September 4, 2025
Among the ‘Universities’ category, IISc continued to hold the top position for the 10th consecutive year, followed by JNU, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (Manipal), Jamia Millia Islamia, University of Delhi, and Banaras Hindu University.
Notably, Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani made a significant jump in the rankings in Universities category, rising from 19th to 7th place.
In the ‘Colleges’ category, Delhi University’s Hindu College retained the top position for the second consecutive year, followed by Miranda House, Hans Raj College, Kirori Mal College, and St. Stephen’s College. Overall, six DU colleges featured in the top 10.
IIM Ahmedabad topped management; AIIMS Delhi medical
Many of the other institutes also retained their top rank under various categories such as ‘engineering’, ‘management’, ‘pharmacy’, ‘law’, ‘medical’, ‘architecture’, ‘dental’, ‘research’, and ‘agriculture’.
For instance, IIM Ahmedabad retained top position in the management category for the sixth consecutive year. Institute director Prof. Bharat Bhasker said that the achievement also 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,” he said.
In the Engineering category, IIT Madras topped for the 10th consecutive years, in pharmacy Jamia Hamdard Delhi retained the position, and in research IISc remained at the forefront.
Meanwhile, in the ‘Innovation’ category, IIT Madras replaced IIT Bombay as the top institute. In a statement, the institute cited its recent launch of the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, aimed at creating a world-class ecosystem for establishing deep-tech start-ups. “The objective is to position the institute on the global map of entrepreneurial universities,” it stated.
Evaluation system
This year, NIRF introduced a negative marking system based on the number of retracted publications for rankings in the Overall, Engineering, Universities, and Research Institutions categories.
The elimination of self-citations at the institutional level, which was introduced in 2024 across all categories and subject domains, was continued in the India Rankings 2025.
Overall, educational institutes were scored on five parameters to rank them in the ‘Overall’ category: teaching, learning and resources; research and professional practice; graduation outcomes; outreach and inclusivity; and perception. Each parameter carried equal weight.
Under the ‘teaching, learning, and resources’ parameter, NIRF considered factors such as student strength, faculty-student ratio, faculty with Ph.D., financial resources and utilisation, online education, multiple entry/exit options, Indian knowledge systems, and regional languages.
For ‘research and professional practice’, the focus was on publications, citations, patents, and research projects. In ‘graduation outcomes’, evaluation included university examination results, median salary of graduates, and Ph.D. students.
The ‘outreach and inclusivity’ parameter looked at regional diversity, women’s diversity, economically and socially challenged students, and physically challenged students. Finally, ‘perception’ assessed the views of academic peers and employers.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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