IIT Madras tops NIRF for 7th year; IISc best university

IIT Madras tops NIRF for 7th year; IISc best university 

Manash Gohain & Meghna Dhulia TNN 05.09.2025

New Delhi : IIT Madras has topped the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2025 in the “overall” category for the seventh straight year while IISc Bengaluru has been ranked India’s best university for the tenth year in a row. IIT-Madras also led the engineering, innovation, and sustainable development goals (SDG) lists. 

“Being a topper consistently is the result of a collective, cohesive and focused team effort,” IIT Madras director V Kamakoti said. For the first time, a private university — Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Karnataka — entered the top three in the “university” category. 

In the colleges list, Delhi University institutions continued to dominate, with Hindu College at No. 1 and 31 in the top 100. A record 7,692 institutions submitted 14,163 applications this year across 17 categories. Announcing the tenth edition of the NIRF on Thursday, education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, “The cornerstone of the India rankings has been its success in cultivating a culture of data governance within higher education institutions ... enabling internal benchmarking and long-term strategic planning.” “At the macro level, this data serves as a valuable resource for national policy formulation and sectoral analysis. A multi-layered data validation is undertaken ... scrutinised for inconsistencies, anomalies and potential inflation,” he said. In the “overall” category, IISc-Bengaluru retained second place, followed by IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi, both holding their positions.

Saveetha drops to second place in dental, CMC remains 3rd in medical Among universities, IISc-Bengaluru stayed at No. 1 and JNU, New Delhi, at No. 2. MAHE, which first entered the top 10 in 2019, continued its steady rise to be ranked third this year. Delhi-based Jamia Millia Islamia slipped one slot to fourth. 

After the inaugural 2016 rankings, BITS-Pilani returned to the top 10 at seventh position, followed by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, as the third private university in the top 10. In colleges, DU’s Miranda House retained second spot, with Hansraj College and Kirori Mal College next. St Stephen’s College, third last year, slipped to fifth. In engineering, nine IITs figured in the top 10. IIT-Madras led the category for the tenth consecutive year, with IIT-Delhi and IIT-Bombay again at second and third. NIT-Tiruchirappalli was the only non-IIT in the top 10. 

The framework evaluates institutions on five groups of parameters — Teaching, Learning & Resources (TLR); Research & Professional Practice (RP); Graduation Outcome (GO); Outreach & Inclusivity (OI); and Perception (PR) — with ranks assigned on total scores across these. 

In management, IIM-Ahmedabad stayed at No. 1, followed by IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Kozhikode. Seven IIMs made it to the top 10, with IITDelhi the only technology institute on the list. MDI-Gurgaon and XLRI-Jamshedpur were ninth and tenth. In medical, AIIMS-Delhi was first, followed by PGIMER-Chandigarh and CMCVellore — all three retaining their positions. 

In dental, AIIMS-Delhi topped the list, while Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai, slipped to second. In pharmacy, Jamia Hamdard retained the top spot, while BITS-Pilani rose to second from third last year. In law, NLSIU-Bengaluru, NLU-Delhi, and Nalsar-Hyderabad were first, second and third, respectively. For research institutions, IIScBengaluru ranked first, followed by IIT-Madras. Among open universities, IGNOU led, with Karnataka State Open University (Mysuru) in second place.