Girl students may help colleges shine

A good percentage of women students in an educational institute, a larger number of patents and good feedback from employers who hired students will help institutions get a better spot in the India Rankings to be announced by President Pranab Mukherjee on April 3.

The National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) under the ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has revised the criteria for granting rankings to educational institutions .

The first ever ranking was published last year in four different categories — Universities, engineering institutes, management institutes, and pharmacy institutes. More than 3,500 top higher educational institutions are under consideration for the ranking. This year, even colleges are in the fray.

The institutions were ranked on five major parameters and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore was ranked as the number one university in India.

However, this year all candidate institutions, independent of their discipline or nature will be given a common overall rank.

“”A total of 2.50% weightage is given for the percentage of women students in the campus. This is important as it will bring in greater gender parity in institutions. At the same time the total number of patents an institute has will also play a significant role,” said an HRD official.

Employers have also given their feedback regarding the student hired by them. So far, more than 2.4 lakh people have given their views .

“The format has been designed to ensure that the diversity of disciplines and their separate needs or characters are suitably taken care of,” the official said.

The criteria for ranking include teaching/learning resources, research, graduation outcomes, outreach/inclusivity and perception. The data for the first four parameters, which account for 90% of the weightage, was submitted by institutions and verified by the National Institutional Ranking Framework. The other 10% are given by the public and the peer about the institute.