The state of Tamil Nadu has been walking strong by setting a remarkable precedent to India's educational ecosystem. Proving once again that the state is surging as a glorious educational hub in all corridors from engineering and arts and science, Tamil Nadu has recorded a big milestone and decorates the latest university rankings that were released by the National Institutional Rankings Framework (NIRF). The NIRF has on Thursday released its rankings on the best institutions in India for 2021 and the rankings were unveiled by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. 

Indian Institute of Technology -Madras (IIT-M) has topped the list as the best institution in India for the third year in a row. Besides IIT-M, thirty-one colleges in Tamil Nadu had successfully entered the club of the top hundred institutions in the country. NIRF ranks the educational institutions under ten categories - Overall, University, Engineering, College, Management, Pharmacy, Law, Architecture, Medical, and Research. In the category of engineering, IIT M has topped the list followed by the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Trichy in the ninth rank, Vellore Institute of Technology (12), Amrita Vishwa Vidhyapeetham (16), and Anna University (18). 

In the rankings of the best colleges in India, Loyola College in Chennai has ranked at the third spot followed by PSGR Krishnammal College for Women in Coimbatore (6), Presidency College, Chennai (7), Madras Christian College (18), and PSG College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore (19). In the category of medicine, Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore has retained its third position among medical colleges in India. However, while there has been a significant momentum to Tamil Nadu as the state 32 institutions in the list of top 100 best institutions in India, there had also been a setback for some of the colleges in losing the rank of where they stood last year. 

According to reports, five universities had plunged in the NIRF rankings. While Anna University dropped by four places in both the university category and engineering category with the rank of 16 and 18 respectively, the University of Madras had dropped six ranks in the current rankings from 22 to 28.  Bharathiar University has dropped to the 14th rank from while Bharathidasan University had dropped from 53 to 57th rank. In the category of colleges, Loyola College was ranked the third best college in India, moving three places forward. Presidency College slipped two ranks to 7th.

In the dental colleges' category,  Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences was placed at the third rank while Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research was ranked 8th, and SRM Dental College was ranked 10th. NIRF rankings were launched in 2015 and the first ranks were announced in 2016 and under NIRF, educational institutions are ranked on various parameters such as teaching, learning, and resources, research, and professional practice, graduation outcomes, outreach, inclusivity, and peer perception. 

The rankings would be determined based on the total sum of marks assigned for each parameter. During the release, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that NIRF should develop itself as a model for other developing economies. He said, "Our ranking system is so robust that we should stand out as a benchmark for other developing nations. There is a difference between our methodology and what the others follow. In future, all developing economies should see this as a benchmark and should contact us to help them in setting their ranking framework." 

Pradhan said, "I congratulate all the premiere institutions from across India who topped the rankings in their respective categories— overall, universities, engineering, management, college, pharmacy, medical, architecture, law, dental and research institutions. I am happy that NIRF has successfully incorporated all the important aspects of teaching, learning and resources, research and professional practice, graduate outcome, outreach and inclusivity in institutions of higher education."