According to the recent reports, The India Rankings 2018 for higher education institutions will be announced on Tuesday. And it will the first time when medical and dental colleges will also be ranked. The presentation of the awards under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) will be done by Prakash Javadekar, union minister for human resource development at 3 pm.

Earlier the NIRF, in its first rankings in 2016, had four categories — universities, engineering, management, and pharmacy. In 2017, overall and college categories were added. In all, over 4,000 institutions have applied. Last year 3,000 institutions participated in the India Rankings 2017.

The rankings assume significance as the performance of institutions has been linked with “Institutions of Eminence” scheme. The number of institutions participating in the rankings has risen by over 1,000 this year.

According to National Board of Accreditation sources apart from the government institutions, a large number of private higher education institutions have joined the rankings this year who were not part of the process earlier.

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a methodology adopted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, to rank institutions of higher education in India. The Framework was approved by the MHRD and launched by Minister of Human Resource Development on 29 September 2015. 

There are separate rankings for different types of institutions depending on their areas of operation like universities and colleges, engineering institutions, management institutions, pharmacy institutions and architecture institutions.