New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice-chancellor Santishree D Pandit on Monday said that JNU should be accorded Institute of Eminence status and funds to help improve its infrastructure after it retained its position in the top 10 institutes of the country in the 2024 NIRF rankings.
The Ministry of Education's National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2024 was announced by Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday.
JNU retained the 10th position in the overall NIRF ranking. The university secured the spot in the 2023 and 2022 rankings as well.
Pandit attributed the achievement to the teachers, students and non-teaching staff while congratulating them for "consistently performing well in national as well as international rankings".
"I thank the entire epistemic community of JNU for working towards maintaining the highest academic standards across rankings. I especially thank the students and non-teaching staff of JNU for upholding an inclusive and equitable environment on campus," she said.
"JNU has been consistently doing very well at national and international rankings. We should be given the eminence tag and the grant which will greatly help our infrastructure and research rankings," she added.
Jamia Millia Islamia's officiating Vice Chancellor Mohammad Shakeel attributed the achievement to the "consistent hardwork" of the faculty, students as well as non-teaching staff.
In the ninth edition of NIRF rankings announced earlier in the day, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) retained the third position in the 'universities' category. This is its third consecutive year holding the position.
In 2021, Jamia bagged the sixth spot. In the overall category, the varsity bagged the 12th spot.
"I am extremely happy that Jamia retained the third position for the third consequent year. The credit goes to the hard work of teachers and the discipline of our students. Our non-teaching staff who put their sweat and blood into maintaining the standard of the university also deserve this recognition," Shakeel told PTI.
"Our effort was to retain the position and not slip. It's easy to reach a mountain but difficult to remain there. The scholars in our university contributed immensely to achieving this feat by producing quality research. I would like to congratulate all of them," he added.
The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) topped the list in the newly introduced category of "Open Universities" in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).
"For the first time, NIRF 2024 included a separate category for Open Universities, acknowledging the unique contributions these institutions make to the landscape of higher education.
"The Minister of Education praised the critical role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) like IGNOU in expanding access to education for marginalized communities, particularly women from rural and semi-urban areas, thus promoting gender parity," the institute said in a statement.
This recognition is a testament to the dedicated efforts of faculty, staff, and employees across the country, it said.
"IGNOU has been a pioneer in Open and Distance Learning, and we are now evolving into a leader in Open and Digital Learning. Our mission to replace 'Distance' with 'Digital' has enabled us to deliver knowledge to millions of learners across India and worldwide," Uma Kanjilal, Vice-Chancellor of IGNOU said.
For 2024, the ranking exercise maintains the practice of providing a comprehensive "overall" rank, alongside distinct rankings in categories -- Universities, Research Institutions, Degree Colleges and Innovation as well as discipline-specific rankings.
Additionally, Open Universities, State Public Universities and Skill Universities have been included as new verticals in this year's rankings.
The participation of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the NIRF rankings has grown from 3,565 in 2016 to 10,845 in 2024, with the number of categories and subject domains expanding from four in 2016 to sixteen in 2024.
The NIRF provides for ranking of institutions in five broad generic groups of parameters - Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR), Research and Professional Practice (RP); Graduation Outcome (GO); Outreach and Inclusivity (O&I) and Perception (PR).