NIRF stands for the National Institutional Ranking Framework and the Ministry of Education runs it. This framework was launched in 2015 and it ranks colleges, universities and research institutes across India every year. The ranking tells a student how one institute compares with another. It also shows how well an institute teaches and how strong its research work is. The 2026 edition is the eleventh edition of this exercise. The Ministry of Education is expected to announce the NIRF Ranking 2026 in the middle or later part of September 2026. The official list will go live on nirfindia.org. Until then the India Rankings 2025 stays the most recently released list.
How Does NIRF Ranking 2026 Work?
NIRF Ranking 2026 works on data first and opinion second. Every participating institute submits its own details through an online portal. For the 2026 edition this data submission window opened in January 2026 and closed in March 2026. The National Board of Accreditation studies this data. It also pulls research information from sources like Web of Science Scopus and Derwent Innovation. A weighted score is then calculated for every institute. Finally the institutes are arranged from the highest score to the lowest score. The top one hundred institutes receive clear ranks. Institutes after that are placed in rank bands such as 101 to 150 and 151 to 200. The Ministry also brought in negative marking for retracted research papers so clean research gets rewarded.
NIRF Ranking 2026 Parameters
NIRF scores every institute on five main parameters and each one carries a fixed weight. Teaching Learning and Resources together with Research and Professional Practice carry the highest weight so they decide most of the final score.
- Teaching Learning and Resources (TLR) – 30%: Looks at student strength faculty student ratio faculty with PhD and financial resources.
- Research and Professional Practice (RP) – 30%: Looks at publications, their quality patents and sponsored projects.
- Graduation Outcomes (GO) – 20%: Look at how many students graduate and how many complete their PhD.
- Outreach and Inclusivity (OI) – 10%: Looks at students from other states, women students and facilities for differently abled students.
- Peer Perception (PR) – 10%: Based on feedback from academic peers and employers.
NIRF Ranking 2026 Categories
NIRF covers sixteen categories in total and a few of these are broad while the rest are subject based. This wide spread lets an engineering student and a medical student both use the same ranking. NIRF also releases subject wise lists. The Sustainable Development Goals category is the newest addition.
- Overall
- University
- College
- Engineering
- Management
- Pharmacy
- Medical
- Dental
- Law
- Architecture
- Agriculture and Allied Sectors
- Research Institutions
- Innovation
- Open Universities
- Skill Universities
- State Public Universities
NIRF Ranking 2026: Top Institutes
The NIRF 2026 list is not out yet so the table below shows the most recently released ranking and that is India Rankings 2025. IIT Madras topped the overall list and it has held the first spot for several years. IISc Bengaluru came second and IIT Bombay came third. These are real published ranks and the 2026 list is expected to bring similar names near the top.
|
Rank
|
Institute
|
City
|
Score
|
|
1
|
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
|
Chennai
|
87.31
|
|
2
|
Indian Institute of Science
|
Bengaluru
|
85.00
|
|
3
|
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
|
Mumbai
|
81.62
|
|
4
|
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
|
New Delhi
|
80.67
|
|
5
|
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
|
Kanpur
|
77.25
|
|
6
|
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
|
Kharagpur
|
73.99
|
|
7
|
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
|
Roorkee
|
71.73
|
|
8
|
All India Institute of Medical Sciences Delhi
|
New Delhi
|
70.57
|
|
9
|
Jawaharlal Nehru University
|
New Delhi
|
69.62
|
|
10
|
Banaras Hindu University
|
Varanasi
|
68.71
|
NIRF Ranking 2026: Category-Wise Rankings
The same 2025 edition also gives separate lists for each category. The table below shows the top five institutes in three popular categories. Engineering stayed firmly with the IITs while the University category had IISc Bengaluru on top. The Management category had IIM Ahmedabad on top followed by IIM Bangalore and IIM Kozhikode. The 2026 numbers will replace these once the Ministry releases them.
|
Category
|
Rank
|
Institute
|
Score
|
|
Engineering
|
1
|
IIT Madras
|
88.72
|
|
Engineering
|
2
|
IIT Delhi
|
85.74
|
|
Engineering
|
3
|
IIT Bombay
|
83.65
|
|
Engineering
|
4
|
IIT Kanpur
|
81.82
|
|
Engineering
|
5
|
IIT Kharagpur
|
78.69
|
|
University
|
1
|
Indian Institute of Science
|
85.05
|
|
University
|
2
|
Jawaharlal Nehru University
|
71.00
|
|
University
|
3
|
Manipal Academy of Higher Education
|
69.25
|
|
University
|
4
|
Jamia Millia Islamia
|
69.10
|
|
University
|
5
|
University of Delhi
|
67.38
|
|
Management
|
1
|
IIM Ahmedabad
|
83.29
|
|
Management
|
2
|
IIM Bangalore
|
81.56
|
|
Management
|
3
|
IIM Kozhikode
|
79.85
|
|
Management
|
4
|
IIT Delhi
|
78.94
|
|
Management
|
5
|
IIM Lucknow
|
77.97
|
How to Check NIRF Ranking 2026?
The whole process takes less than a minute and the official website is the only place you need. Follow these simple steps once the list is live.
- Open the official NIRF website at nirfindia.org
- Click on the Rankings tab on the home page
- Select the year 2026 from the list
- Pick your category such as Engineering or Overall
- Download the PDF or read the table directly
- Use the search box to find your institute by name
- Compare scores across the five parameters
- Check the rank band if your institute is outside the top 100
Also Read:
NIRF 2026 Rankings: Know How and When Colleges Are Evaluated on Five Key Parameters