Amidst the vocal student protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), voices from Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia gained ample traction in the media. It was often what one would call “bad press,” with pundits of various backgrounds raising concerns about students distancing themselves from education for the purpose of protests. However, in the National Institute Rankings Framework list for best universities released recently, both institutions seem to have recorded some impressive numbers. AMU rose seven spots to make it to the top ten on the list, whereas, Jamia was ranked sixth this time, up four spots from last year's ranking of 10 in the universities category.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan released the NIRF 2021. Like every other event for the past two years, this too was revealed online on various video and social media platforms. In the sixth edition of the rankings, eight IITs and two national Institutes of Technology (NITs) figured in the top ten engineering institutions in the country. The NIRF ranks education institutes and universities all over India across several parameters including teaching, learning and resources, research and professional practices, graduation outcome outreach and inclusivity, and perception.
How did the others fare?
University of Madras, on the other hand, has been landing in the 20s over the last three years, and settled at a worrying 28 this year. Jamia, in fact, has recorded an impressive improvement in its rankings in the last three years-- in 2019, it was at number 12, whereas in 2016, it stood at a dismal 83. The students of AMU and Jamia are currently demanding that their administrations to open up campuses after almost 18 months of the pandemic-induced lockdowns.
