The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are building a reputation for being excellent business schools as well.
Over the last five years, India’s premier engineering schools have expanded their footprint in the management category of the National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF), the union government’s merit list for higher education institutions.
Six IITs have ranked among the 20 best institutions for management study in the latest edition of the NIRF rankings released on Thursday. In 2017, there were four IITs in the top 20 for management study.
Of the country’s 23 IITs, only seven offer a Master’s in management.
Among the IITs, IIT-Delhi has been ranked the best for management study. It is fifth in the management category in this year’s NIRF rankings, higher that reputed business schools such as IIM-Indore (rank 6), IIM-Lucknow (rank 7), and XLRI (rank 8).
IIT-Kharagpur (rank 9), IIT-Bombay (rank 10), IIT-Madras (rank 13), IIT-Roorkee (rank 14), and IIT-Kanpur (rank 16) are the other IITs in the top 20 for management. IIT-Dhanbad, the seventh IIT that offers an MBA, has been ranked 30 in the management category.
The top four places in this category are occupied by the country’s premier business schools, IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Calcutta, and IIM-Kozhikode, in that order.
The impressive performance of the IITs on the research parameter seems to be driving their ranking in the management category. IIT-Delhi, for instance, has scored more than IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Calcutta, and IIM-Kozhikode on the ‘combined metric for publications’ and ‘combined metric for quality of publications’.
On the other hand, the IITs tend to lag on perception, student strength, gender diversity, and utilisation of financial resources.
“IITs focus a lot on research. Being a department in an IIT means that our faculty here is heavily engaged in research activities. This not only reflects in our publications output, but it also enriches our MBA curriculum. Our research is also the reason why IIT-Delhi does well in international rankings for MBA programmes,” said Seema Sharma, head of the department of management studies at IIT-Delhi.
Overall, IIT-Madras, IISc-Bangalore, and IIT-Bombay have emerged as the country’s top three higher education institutions in the sixth edition of the NIRF announced by Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday.
Not much has changed in the rankings in the university and engineering schools categories.
No new institution has displaced IISc, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) from the top three spots among universities.
In the engineering rankings, IIT Madras, IIT-Delhi, and IIT-Bombay remain on top.
Besides JNU, other universities such as Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) and Hyderabad Central University (HCU), which have seen student protests against the union government, are also among the top ten in the country.
While JMI has improved its rank from 10 last year to 6 this year, HCU has slipped from rank 6 to rank 9.
Besides overall performance and performance in the engineering, management, and university categories, NIRF also lists the best institutions in the categories of college, medical, pharmacy, law, architecture, dental, and research.
In the college category, there has been a reshuffle since last time.
While Miranda House has retained the top position, Lady Shri Ram College has been displaced from the second-best position. Hindu College, which dropped from rank 2 to rank 3 last year, has slipped further to rank 9 this time. All three colleges are affiliated to the University of Delhi.
The number 3 position has been taken by Loyola College, Chennai, this year. St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, has improved from tenth position to fourth, and Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira is at rank 5.
AIIMS-Delhi is the country’s top medical institute, followed by PGIMER Chandigarh and Christian Medical College Vellore.
In the research category that was introduced this year, IISc-Bangalore has been adjudged the best, followed by IIT-Madras and IIT-Bombay.
Roughly 6,000 education institutions participated in NIRF this year. All institutions were assessed on five parameters: teaching, learning and resources, research and professional practices, graduation outcomes, outreach and inclusivity, and perception.