The University of Kashmir has ranked 33rd among universities in the country assessed under the National Institutional Ranking Framework-2023. As per the announcement by the Union Education Ministry in New Delhi, the varsity has improved from Rank 53 in the 2022 and achieved a rise by 20 notches in the current year’s ranking by figuring at rank 33 with a point score of 53.08 as against the point score of 48.27 in the previous year. The varsity notably is the only university from Jammu and Kashmir figuring in the overall category of 100 top institutions under NIRF.
The University has, in the current year’s ranking, fared much better in the Research and Professional Practices (RP), Combined Metric for Faculty with PhD (FQE) and Financial Resources and Utilization (FRU), among others.
Approved by the Ministry of Education (Erstwhile Ministry of Human Resource Development) and launched on 29th September 2015, the NIRF is a methodology to rank institutions across the country based on various parameters. It is the first-ever effort by the government to rank Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the country. The broad parameters on which a HEI is ranked by the NIRF are teaching, learning and resources, research and professional practice, graduation outcome, outreach and inclusivity, and perception. Each of them is assigned a specific weightage. HEIs are ranked overall, university-wise, college-wise and also under disciplines such as law, medical, pharmacy, management, architecture, and engineering.
The framework, methodology and metrics used for ranking of HEIs for India Rankings in its previous edition were continued for the current year without any major changes. With expansion of scope of “Architecture” to “Architecture and Planning”, programs and faculty pertaining to Planning (in addition to Architecture) is being considered for ranking of HEIs in this subject domain.
The better performance of Kashmir University is a testament to the persistent efforts of the authorities concerned including support to improve infrastructure, and establish research partnerships. All those concerned including the faculty members deserve significant recognition for their dedicated and consistent efforts for the truly remarkable achievement.
There is need for improvement and the varsity must strive hard to achieve newer heights. Hopefully it will continue to improve and achieve much higher rankings in upcoming years. There should be continuous focus on academic excellence and research among others to place the varsity among the country’s top ten universities in coming years.
