Shillong, Sep 4: In a sign of its continuing decline, North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) has fallen further in the 2025 National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of the Union Education Ministry.
From being in the 101-150 band among universities in the country, NEHU, the only central government university in Meghalaya, has now dropped into the 151-200 band. NEHU has also completely slipped out of the overall rankings (which include institutes and colleges, etc); last year it was in the 151-200 band.
The NIRF provides for ranking of institutions in five broad generic groups of parameters, namely Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR), Research and Professional Practice (RP), Graduation Outcome (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (O&I) and Perception (PR).
The University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM) continued to maintain its place in the 151-200 band of universities for the fourth consecutive year. It is the first and only private university in the North East to be ranked among India’s top 200 universities and it is aiming to break into the higher ranks next year, it said in a press release today.
Indian Institute of Science (Bengaluru) retained its top position among the best 100 universities in the NIRF 2025. The second and third spots were bagged by Jawaharlal Nehru University (Delhi) and Manipal Academy of Higher Education (Karnataka). JNU was second last year as well, while 2024’s third-placed Jamia Millia Islamia (Delhi) has dropped to fourth place. Gauhati University is the highest-ranked North Eastern university at 33rd. Tezpur University is next at 79th, Mizoram University in 82nd and Assam University (Silchar) in 97th.
The NIRF ranks only the top 100, while the next 100 are in two group bands and 201-300 in another band.
Dibrugarh University and Manipur University are in the 101-150 band, while Central Agricultural University (Manipur), Nagaland University, Rajiv Gandhi University (Itanagar) and Sikkim Manipal University are in the 151-200 band along with NEHU and USTM.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras secured the top position among the best 100 institutions overall in the NIRF 2025. The second and third spots were bagged by the Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru and IIT Bombay. IIT Guwahati, the highest-ranked North Eastern institution, was 11th.
The best colleges are dominated by Delhi, with Hindu College, Miranda House, Hans Raj College, Kirori Mal College and St Stephen’s College occupying the top five places. Aizawl’s Pachhunga University College is in 49th, the only one from the North East in the top 100. No Meghalaya college has made it anywhere in the top 300; last year St Anthony’s found a place in the 201-300 band.
In the engineering category, the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Meghalaya has fallen to 83rd in the country from 68th last year.
Among management institutes, the Indian Institute of Management, Shillong, came 38th out of 125. This was a fall from 24th last year.
There was no institution from Meghalaya in the medical or law categories.
