NIRF Rankings 2024: Reality check for Bihar institutions

Bihar’s premiere Patna University is the only state university that has found place in the National Institutional Framework Ranking (NIRF) in the category of state public universities. The rankings were released in Monday.
There is no university in the state in the overall ranking for universities of the country to tell the story of state that still takes pride in the legacy of Nalanda University and Vikramshila University, the ancient seats of learning that drew students and scholars from across the globe.
Once an aspirant for the central university status, the seventh oldest university of the country is ranked in the range of 51-100 among state public universities. It is the only institution among the three state universities that participated in the NIRF ranking for the first time.
Two other universities – TM Bhagalpur University and BN Mandal University (Madhepura) – were not included in the ranking. Rest of the 10 state universities did not even participate.
For the first time, 151 colleges and 61 institutions participated in the NIRF ranking from Bihar. In the college category, Patna Women’s College was in the 101-151 rankings and it was the only college in the top 300. Rest did not feature in the ranking.
Chanakya National Law University (CNLU), Patna, has also made an entry for the first time in its history with the rank 31st in the NIRF ranking for law universities. IIM, Bodh Gaya achieved 33rd place among management institutions.
Only two institutions – both central – have found place in the top 100 overall ranking of institutions in the 2024 NIRF ranking.
One of them is the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Patna, ranked 73rd with a score of 51.24. It is ranked 34th in the category of engineering institutions.
The second in the top 100 of the overall ranking is the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), ranked 99th with a score of 47.55. It is ranked 26th in the medical institutions category.
No other medical or engineering institution from Bihar features in the top 100 of their respective categories.
NIT Patna is ranked in the range of 101-150 in the overall category. It is ranked 55th in the category of engineering institutions.
Another institution in the 151-200 ranking in the category of universities is the Rajendra Prasad Central Agriculture University, Samastipur. It is ranked in the 151-200 rankings in the overall category and 29th among the agriculture universities of the country.
Bihar’s own institutions have been reluctant to participate in the NIRF ranking due to a number of factors, including the handicaps they face in terms of infrastructural deficiencies and teachers’ shortage, besides late academic sessions and poor students’ feedback.
“We hope more and more institutions participate in the NIRF ranking in future and strive to improve quality to be in the reckoning. First step is participation and at least they have started participating,” said state nodal officer at the state higher education council (SHEC) NK Agarwal.