Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Ranking educational institutions is useful' that was published in Newsband

Ranking educational institutions is useful

The “who’s who” of universities and research institutions published by the Human Resource Development Ministry, is not bad. The National Institutional Ranking Framework, 2018, assesses some of the top institutions such as the Indian Institute of Science, the Jawaharlal Nehru University, the IITs and the IIMs

To the faculty and students in many colleges, what matters is the vision of the administrative leaders and a commitment to excellence. The governing bodies should make available adequate financial and academic resources to colleges to help them improve performance.

Ranking educational and research institutes has practical uses. Students can make study choices. The ranking approach worldwide is critiqued for failing to capture the crucial metric of learning outcomes, relying instead on proxy data on faculty strength and qualifications. In the case of the NIRF the final responsibility for accuracy of data lies with the participating institution.

What is positive about the system is its emphasis on achieving measurable goals and bringing in transparency. The 2018 exercise added the disciplines of law, medicine and architecture and it hopes to cast the net wider in the future. The goal is to foster learning and scholarship.

Rankings can encourage unhealthy competition. Too few institutes see too many students vying to enter them by any means. Instead, quality in all institutes should be improved for all students getting similar standard of education and faculty

NIRF also should give say top 10 ranking in individual Engineering Disciplines or even scientific disciplines or themes like Energy or Environment. That way every institution can pick a niche area and try to excel. The institutions also can differentiate themselves more. It can help the nation if we have a "Go To" university say for pollution problem.

Thus focus should be on complete academic freedom, without the pressure and the governing bodies should make available adequate financial and academic resources to colleges, particularly the younger ones, to help them improve performance. But both these aspects are neglected and institutions suffers.