NIRF credible alternative to foreign rankings, but needs strengthening: BITS Pilani Group VC

new delhi: the national institutional ranking framework (nirf) has emerged as a credible alternative to rankings by foreign private agencies but requires further strengthening to address existing challenges, bits pilani group vice chancellor v ramgopal rao has said.“the big win is that nirf is announced by the government of india. it has that official sanctity. qs or times higher education rankings are private agencies and thrive on perception. you can even hire them for services,” rao told pti in an interview.he said nirf, which marked its 10th edition on september 4, has significantly evolved over the past decade with participation growing from 3,565 higher education institutions in 2016 to over 14,000 this year.bits pilani entered the top 10 universities list for the first time in 2025, securing seventh position, besides improving its overall ranking from 26 to 23 and moving from 20th to 11th among engineering institutions. it also bagged second place in pharmacy.rao, a former iit delhi director, flagged issues with research metrics, pointing to possible “double counting” when both paper volume and citations are considered, as well as concerns of self-citation. he called for audits to check sudden jumps in institutional rankings since the process relies heavily on self-reported data.“other than the top 20, volatility is a big challenge. random audits of institutions showing significant improvements are needed to instil confidence,” he said.nirf currently evaluates institutions across nine categories and eight subject domains. this year, a record 7,692 unique institutions submitted 14,163 applications for rankings.