THE NATIONAL INSTITUTIONAL RANKING FRAMEWORK (‘NIRF’), is the Ministry of Education's flagship annual ranking of over 1,300 colleges and universities across India. It ranks institutions on five broad parameters: teaching resources, research, graduate outcomes, inclusivity, and perception. The scores are published with apparent precision and methodology, donning a rigorous look.
Participating universities submit data to the NIRF Data Capturing System, and publish those figures on their websites before ranks are released. The official methodology vaguely empowers the ranking authority to conduct ‘random checks’ on a sample basis. In reality, the process requires no systematic scrutiny or proof to establish the veracity of the complete stated figures.
Within this system, placement figures and the median salary of placed graduates matter significantly in the NIRF Rankings for professional-degree categories (Law, Medicine, Engineering, Management, Pharmacy, and Architecture). Together it accounts for almost 14-16 percent of a university's total NIRF score. Inflate those numbers convincingly, a university can leapfrog other universities with far superior faculty, infrastructure, and research output.
