NIRF Ranking 2025: New Category & Negative Marking Introduced – Key Highlights Changes Here

NIRF 2025: The Madras High Court temporarily halted the publication of the NIRF 2025 rankings, which are anticipated to be issued shortly, because of concerns regarding the lack of data verification. A new sustainability category and the implementation of a negative scoring system for retracted research publications are two notable developments this year.

Siddhi Sharma
Aug 13, 2025, 11:00 IST
NIRF Ranking 2025
NIRF Ranking 2025

NIRF 2025: The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings for 2025 are expected to be released this month. This year, there will be major modifications to the rankings, which are supervised by the Ministry of Education. For the first time, a negative grading system for research article retraction will be employed, and a new category centered on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been added.

Overall, engineering, pharmacy, management, architecture and planning, agriculture and related fields, law, medicine, dentistry, innovation, skill universities, open universities, state public universities, colleges, research institutions, and universities were among the 16 categories in which HEIs were ranked last year.

NIRF Ranking 2025: Last Year’s Top Institutions

Based on the 2024 rankings, these are the top three institutions in several key categories mentioned below:

Top 3 Overall Institutions

  • Indian Institute of Technology Madras

  • Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

  • Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Top 3 Medical Colleges

  • All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi

  • Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh

  • Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore

Top 3 Engineering Colleges

  • Indian Institute of Technology Madras

  • Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

  • Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Top 3 Universities

  • Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru

  • Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi

  • Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

What After The NIRF Ranking 2025?

The evaluation system has undergone considerable modifications for the NIRF 2025 rankings. A brand-new sustainability-focused category has been added, and institutions will be evaluated according to how well they follow the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The introduction of a negative marking system for research article retractions is another noteworthy modification. 

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Institutions will now pay a fine under the "research and professional practices" criterion. A new formula that takes into account the quantity or proportion of retracted publications will be used to determine the score. These modifications are intended to encourage research integrity and sustainable practices in India's higher education establishments.

Madras High Court's Stay on NIRF 2025 Rankings

In response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) brought by C. Chellamuthu, the Madras High Court temporarily halted the release of the NIRF 2025 rankings. The plea claimed that without any independent verification, universities were falsifying information about research funding, teacher salaries, and student strength in order to obtain higher rankings.

The NIRF only uses self-reported data from the institutions, according to the court's ruling, in contrast to the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), which evaluates data through expert committees. The petitioner contended that this lack of verification would have a detrimental effect on educational quality by enabling institutions with poor standards to deceptively advertise themselves.

Siddhi Sharma
Siddhi Sharma

Content Writer

Siddhi Sharma, working as a Content Writer at Jagran Josh, has graduated from IPU with a Bachelor of Journalism and Mass Communication. She has 1 plus year of experience in content writing. She writes on education, current affairs, and general knowledge. She has previously worked with Zee News as a content writer. She can be reached at siddhi.sharma@jagrannewmedia.com

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