Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru has for the third consecutive year, bagged the top rank in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) which was announced by the Minister of Human Resource Development, Shri. Prakash Javadekar on 03 March 2018.

The institutions are ranked by NIRF based on five broad parameters, namely; Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR), Research and Professional Practices (RPC), Graduation Outcomes (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI) and Perception (PR). The five parameters with a ranking weightage given to each are then used to arrive at an overall ranking for the institutions.

Of the 100 institutions that were ranked, IISc secured an overall top score of 82.16 to bag first rank, while Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai with a score of 81.39 bagged second rank and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai ranked third with an overall score of 79.20. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, and Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi were the other universities to make it to the top 10.

While the ranks of many top universities remained unchanged, Anna University, Chennai which was ranked 13 last year climbed three spots to rank 10 this year, while IIT Guwahati which held the 8th rank last year slipped to rank 12 in 2018.

While IISc topped the scoring in three of the five parameters, namely; TLR, RPC and PR, Jawahralal Nehru University scored the highest in the GO and OI parameters. Goa University, Goa, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin and Delhi Technological University, New Delhi scored the lowest to rank 98, 99 and 100 respectively.

Four Institutions, namely: ICAR - National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai were also given special mention by NIRF for the year 2018. 

NIRF was approved and launched by the Minister of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in 2015 and outlines a methodology to rank institutions across the country. A core committee set up by the MHRD identifies broad parameters for ranking the various universities and institutions in the country.