The Ministry of Education announced the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2025 on September 4. Students, parents, and institutions can access the rankings on the official website, nirfindia.org. IIT Madras has once again claimed the top position in the overall category. This year marks the 10th edition of the NIRF rankings, which were released after a brief delay due to a temporary stay by the Madras High Court over concerns related to transparency and data accuracy.
In the previous year, IIT Madras secured the overall top spot for the sixth consecutive time, while Hindu College was ranked the best college in the country. Additionally, IIT Madras and AIIMS Delhi led the engineering and medical categories, respectively.
NIRF Ranking 2025: Top Medical colleges
Rank 1 – AIIMS Delhi
Rank 2 – Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Science
Rank 3 – Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Science
Rank 4 – Dr DY Patil Vidyapeeth
Rank 5 – Manipal College of Dental Sciences
NIRF Rankings 2025: Top IIT Colleges
1 – IIT Madras
2 – IIT Delhi
3 – IIT Bombay
4 – IIT Kanpur
5 – IIT Kharagpur
The 2025 rankings span over 16 categories, including Engineering, Management, Medical, Law, and Research Institutions. A new category on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been added, highlighting the increasing focus on sustainability in education. The assessment is carried out on factors such as teaching quality, research performance, graduation outcomes, inclusivity, and overall reputation.
Institutions will continue to be assessed across six key parameters: Teaching, Learning and Resources (30%), Research and Professional Practice (30%), Graduation Outcomes (20%), Outreach and Inclusivity (10%), and Perception (10%). However, the weightage assigned to these parameters may vary slightly depending on the category of the institution.
In a major policy shift, NIRF has introduced negative marking for retracted research papers. Institutions publishing flawed or retracted research will face penalties in their final scores. This step is aimed at strengthening research integrity and credibility
