Those seeking admission in a college in Chennai. , Photo Credit: The Hindu
TeaThe National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), adopted by the Ministry of Education to rank institutions of higher education in India, shows a remarkable feature of Tamil Nadu. especially, NIRF Ranking of Top 100 Colleges in India 2023 This reflects Tamil Nadu’s continued success in providing good quality and inclusive higher education. Tamil Nadu’s experience in keeping with the state’s motto of development with social justice provides an important insight for other states.
NIRF employs a ranking metric consisting of five parameters with different weightages to assess the quality of colleges: teaching, learning and resources (40%), graduation results (25%), research and professional practice (15%) ), Outreach and Inclusivity (10%) and Perception (10%). Each of these parameters has several components, which also have different importance. Although far from perfection, the metric is reasonably robust as it uses broad-based and curated parameters.
The number of participating colleges in NIRF ranking has increased from 535 in 2017 to 1,659 in 2020 and 2,746 in 2023. Despite this fivefold increase, the participating colleges are only a minuscule proportion of the actual number of colleges in India. Since NIRF ranking has already gained wide appeal and credibility, it is likely that many good quality colleges will participate in this exercise. Making it to the top 100 will give them prestige and increase the demand for admission. Conversely, non-participating colleges are likely to be of poor quality and severely deficient in most parameters of the ranking metric. Therefore, it is fair to assume that many good quality colleges participate in the ranking.
part of colleges
Of the top 100 NIRF-ranked colleges in 2023, Tamil Nadu has the largest share (35). It is followed by Delhi (32), followed by Kerala (14) and West Bengal (8). These four states collectively contribute 89% of the top colleges, which explains a lot about other regions. Large states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha do not have a single college in the top 100. Even the share of other southern states is abysmal: Karnataka has two colleges, Telangana has one and Andhra Pradesh has one. nobody is here. Tamil Nadu’s share (35%) is more than double the combined share of the other four southern states (17%).
Is Tamil Nadu’s stupendous performance consistent or sporadic? The NIRF ranking of colleges from 2017 shows that Tamil Nadu continues to be a leading contributor to the top ranking colleges in India. Even if we restrict the focus to the last five years, when the number of participating colleges in the NIRF ranking grew exponentially, Tamil Nadu retained its top position (except in 2022, when Delhi was at par with Tamil Nadu).
Although the broad pattern of four states (Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Kerala and West Bengal) having a major share of the top colleges is consistent across years, there have been variations in the share of the rest of the states in some years. For example, Andhra Pradesh had one top college in the ranking in both 2022 and 2021, while Karnataka’s share went up to three in 2021. Except for Gujarat and Maharashtra, the big states were hardly represented in most of the years.
Concentrated or scattered?
Is Tamil Nadu’s performance in line with its motto of development with social justice? In particular, are the top-ranked colleges largely confined to Chennai and thus cater primarily to the urban elite and privileged social groups, or are they spread out and cater to rural and socially disadvantaged groups? We do? Chennai has only nine (26%) colleges. Coimbatore constantly competes with Chennai with equal share. Tiruchirappalli is next with five colleges (14%). The remaining 12 (out of 35) colleges are widely spread over 11 locations. This broad pattern was observed in other years as well. The biggest beneficiaries are likely to be urban residents of Chennai, Coimbatore and Tiruchirappalli. Yet, there is also the possibility that the top 23 colleges in these three cities, belonging to three different regions, serve the poor and marginalized social groups of these regions as well as their adjacent regions equally. Can This is because Tamil Nadu not only has the highest reservation quota, but has also been very effective in the implementation of the reservation policy.
Additionally, since more than one-third of the top-ranked colleges are spread across different locations, they not only cater to largely rural and under-served areas, but also provide quality education to students from poor and disadvantaged social groups. They also provide opportunities for education. Colleges in Chennai, Coimbatore and Tiruchirappalli do not have the financial resources and social networks to study. Thus, colleges located in Chennai in general and other districts in particular promote both quality and inclusion, and thereby contribute to the goal of development with social justice. Here also the experience of Tamil Nadu has been the same over the years. The only other state that comes somewhat close is Kerala.
Tamil Nadu’s impressive and consistent performance in higher education shows that quality and inclusion can be achieved simultaneously and consistently. This finding should prompt other southern states, which also have a reasonably inclusive and effective social welfare architecture, to introspect why they are lagging so far behind and take action to rectify the issues.
Sunny Jose is the RBI Chair Professor at the Council for Social Development, Hyderabad. P Raghupathi is Senior Fellow, ICSSR, Council for Social Development, Hyderabad. Views expressed are personal