NIRF Ranking 2025 Released: IIT Madras Claims Top Spot Again
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has announced the 10th edition of the 'India Rankings 2025' under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). For the seventh year in a row, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has been named the top higher education institution in the country.
- IIT Madras is the #1 institution in the 'Overall' category for the 7th straight year (2019–2025).
- This is the 10th edition of the annual NIRF India Rankings.
- A new system of negative marking has been introduced to prevent plagiarism in research.
Negative Marks Introduced to Ensure Fair Rankings
According to Sukanta Majumdar, the Union Minister of State for Education, the rankings are a way to celebrate the achievements of Indian colleges and universities. He noted that this system helps improve the quality of education and supports important reforms.
A major change in the 2025 rankings is the introduction of **negative marking**. This step was taken to discourage plagiarism in research papers and ensure that publications are original and high-quality.
NIRF 2025: Overall Top 10 Institutions
Here is the list of the top 10 higher education institutions in the overall category:
- IIT Madras
- Indian Institute of Science (IISc Bangalore)
- IIT Bombay
- IIT Delhi
- IIT Kanpur
- IIT Kharagpur
- IIT Roorkee
- AIIMS Delhi
- Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)
- Banaras Hindu University (BHU)
How Rankings Help Students and Institutions
Vineet Joshi, Secretary of the Department of Higher Education, explained that the rankings help track the progress of colleges and universities. This encourages them to constantly improve their teaching quality and research output.
The main goal of the rankings is to help students make smart choices by showing which institutions are best in different fields. It also creates healthy competition among colleges, motivating them to improve each year.
Strict Measures Against Plagiarism in Future
Professor Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman of the National Board of Accreditation (NBA), warned that the use of negative marking is just the first step. In the future, the penalty for plagiarism will increase, and institutions found cheating could be **removed from the ranking process** entirely to maintain high standards for research.