Union Minister Prakash Javadekar . Express photo by Praveen Jain Union Minister Prakash Javadekar . Express photo by Praveen Jain

Third time in a row, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc) has been ranked the best university in India. At the second position is JNU, followed by the Banaras Hindu University (BHU). The top three engineering institutes which figure in the list are IIT Madras, IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi. The rankings are released by the Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar today.

In the management category, like last year, IIM-Ahmedabad has retained its top position followed by IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Calcutta. Among colleges, Delhi University’s Miranda House too has retained its first position while St Stephen’s is at number 2. The third position is bagged by Bishop Heber College.

Read | Top 25 engineering colleges in India: NIRF ranking 2018

Overall IISc, second time in a row, has been adjudged the best higher educational institute followed by IIT Madras and IIT Bombay. Under the law category, NLU Bangalore is number 1 followed by NLU Delhi and NLUSAR. Similary in the architecture category, IIT Kharagpur is at top position while IIT Roorkee and SPA Delhi at number 2 and 3.

Another new category has been added this year which is medical colleges. AIIMS Delhi has topped the list followed by PGIMER and Christian Medical College. In the pharmacy category, NIPER Mohali is number one while Jamia Hamdard is at number two followed by Panjab University.

HRD Higher Education secretary R Subrahmanyan said public institutions which do not participate in national ranking will face fund cut.

This year, the government has come out with nine categories – adding law, architecture and medical in the existing list of universities, engineering colleges, pharmacy and best colleges. Using the same broad parameters, NIRF has added several new criteria such as total budget and its utilisation, combined metric for quality of publications, university examinations and how many graduating students admitted into top institutions.

Read | Top 25 universities in India: NIRF ranking 2018

In NIRF, to promote research and development in the higher education, ‘Research and Professional Practices’ has been given the highest weightage of 40 per cent for ranking Universities. In a statement at the Lok Sabha on Monday, Minister of state Satya Pal Singh said ranking promotes competition among the Universities and drive them to strive for excellence.

Government has also started a scheme called ‘Institutions of Eminence’ in which 20 institutions both public and private, would be selected on challenge method and they would be actively supported to come up in the global rankings.

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