The annual EducationWorld Grand Jury India Higher Education Rankings were introduced in 2019 to acknowledge and felicitate higher education institutions (HEIs) — especially newly-promoted, low-profile HEIs. Special juries of knowledgeable educationists are constituted to recommend conferment of the EW Grand Jury Awards upon higher ed institutions implementing best practices.

To select progressive higher education institutions across the country, we invited nominations from educationists, individuals and higher ed institutions themselves supported by evidence of best practices in 12 categories including extraordinary leadership, campus design excellence, best academia-industry alliance, new-age study programmes among others.

 Evidence-supported nominations were received from 628 higher education institutions countrywide. To assess the evidence and rank nominated institutions in each category, this year’s Grand Jury comprised eminent educationists Prof. A.S. Seetharamu, former professor of education, Institute of Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru, Mehul D. Mehta, chairman MDM Group, start-up mentor and investor, Deepakkumar Mukadam, former chancellor’s nominee on the management council of University of Mumbai and founder, Academistan, an online faculty networking platform. The Grand Jury duly assessed the nominations and supportive evidence and ranked Top 10 HEIs in each category.

Diversity, Inclusion & Equity Champion
Institutions that promote admission of students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, cultures and nationalities. Provide students equal opportunities and ensure their participation in all activities regardless of culture, language, gender, economic background or disability.

“This award is valuable for us because of our management’s sustained commitment to DEI goals. In NKC, we truly value student body diversity, equal opportunity and community and social outreach. Over the years, we have designed and implemented several outreach programmes. Among them: Project POSHAN, a 365-day food drive for the destitute; Projects PARIVARTAN and PRAGATI, to improve education and sanitation for tribal communities and PEHEL under which we organize medical camps for adivasis/marginalised people living in rural India” — Dr. Ancy Jose (right), Director, MKES Group of Institutions, Mumbai (6,000 students, 100 teachers)

Excellence In Academic Achievement
This award celebrates higher ed institutions that demonstrated outstanding academic performance, research output, teaching quality, learning assessment and innovative teaching-learning initiatives in the academic year 2024-25.

“This award is very motivating. It acknowledges the excellent, stimulating and supportive learning environment built in ABS. The differentiating factor of ABS education is that we provide rigorous curricula, high-quality faculty, experiential pedagogies, latest ICT technologies, enabling infrastructure and excellent student support services. Our carefully designed Learning Management System ensures students have 24/7 access to learning materials to encourage flexible, self-paced learning. In particular, I want to thank our faculty for unhesitatingly providing additional tutorials and academic mentorship to our students to fully prepare for employment. High quality academic support is supplemented with programmes on emotional well-being, goal setting, life skills education and robust student grievance counseling forums. Excellence in academics is the end result of our holistic education philosophy” — Dr. Sanjeev Bansal, Addl.  Pro Vice-Chancellor, Amity Business School, Noida (1,200 students & 80 teachers)

Enabling Start-up Culture
Institutions which encourage an entrepreneurial ecosystem and start-up culture that highly values student ideation, problem solving, risk taking, and innovation and supports on-campus incubation of student businesses.

“I attribute our high rank under this parameter to the unique GITAM Innovation & Entrepreneurship Continuum programme. Under this programme, we have designed a start-ups development ecosystem that connects academic learning with entrepreneurship through cross-disciplinary education. Pre-incubation support is provided by our Venture Development Centre, and post-incubation by DST GITAM-ITBI. For infrastructure, mentorship, global exposure and early-stage funding to our campus start-ups we allocate Rs.10 crore annually. Other initiatives include Ready-Set-Go Pre-Incubation Program, that supports 800 student teams; Entrepreneurs Club and SmartIDEAthon, a pan-India entrepreneurship competition. In addition, we have created a larger entrepreneurship ecosystem of GITAM alumni for mentoring students. We take the issue of re-discovery of our ancient Indian entrepreneurship culture very seriously” — Vikas Kumar Srivastav, Deputy Director, Venture Development Centre, GITAM University, Visakhapatnam (28,000 students, 1,800 faculty)

Exemplary Researcher of the Year
This award recognises higher education institutions that encourage research which has caught, or has the potential to catch, the imagination of the public and/or industry.

“I credit our top rank in this category to the excellent work being done in the Marwadi University Research Center (MURC), which has transformed into a hub of high-end innovation. The university management has invested heavily in cutting-edge instrumentation and equipment such as the Scanning Electron Microscope, X-ray Diffraction, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer etc, for MURC’s 50 full-time researchers. Moreover, the university has collaboration agreements with Bosch, IBM and Oracle to jointly establish fully equipped on-campus labs to conduct subject-specific research. We also offer seed grants ranging from Rs.2.5-10 lakh to talented researchers” — Dr. Sanjeet Singh, Pro Vice Chancellor, Marwadi University, Rajkot (14,000 students and 900 faculty)

Excellence in Skills Development Education
Higher education institutions providing new-age career-oriented skill development and education programmes.

“Skills development and enhancement is not an add-on curriculum but integrated into it, because we accord top priority to students’ career-readiness and employability. Therefore, our curriculum ensures the gap between academic knowledge and workplace skills is bridged through live projects, internships, and life skills education. Moreover our students learn practically through on-the-ground training and experience at major events such as IPL, IIFA, Sunburn, IIJS, Lollapalooza, AceTech, Lil Flea, and Jio MAMI Festival. This is supplemented with workshops led by experts and certification programmes” — Pravin Joshi (centre, front row), Director, Nest Academy of Event Management and Development, Mumbai (1,000 students and 40 teachers)

New Study Programmes Pioneer
Higher education institutions pioneering the introduction of new-age and futuristic industry-aligned study programmes.

“I attribute our top rank in this category to our innovative and creative Board of Studies that carefully analyses emerging industry trends and requirements. This enables our faculty to design study programmes aligned with industry demand. For instance, we were perhaps the first institute to introduce degree programmes in entrepreneurship, digital media, professional accounting, interior design, integrative nutrition, event, sports and marketing management. These study programmes have earned excellent nationwide reputation for providing practical, hands-on learning, industry internships and latest AI technologies. Every year we continue to expand and finetune our study programmes to prepare graduates for success in the new digital economy” — Balkishan Sharma, Co-founder and Director of Future Varsity, Mumbai (3,500 students and 175 teachers)

Top Performing University of the Year
Universities demonstrating exceptional performance in the academic year 2024-25 in terms of academic outcomes, research, faculty development, social engagement programmes and innovative initiatives.

“This recognition by an eminent EW Jury is highly motivating. It’s recognition of the quality of our academic and skills programmes, faculty competence and research programmes, and the vibrant, future-focused learning environment we have created at Chitkara. It reaffirms our position as one of the country’s higher education leaders and will inspire us to continue setting new benchmarks nationally and globally. This year, we reached the milestones of 4,000 registered patents and publication of 14,000 Scopus-indexed research papers by faculty; 200 start-up enterprises incubated on campus, and collaboration partnerships with 225 universities worldwide. Moreover several billion-dollar corporates including Apple, Infosys and Cap Gemini have established research labs on our campus. And this year Times Higher Education, London ranked Chitkara #1 worldwide for research quality. We are committed to continuous improvement and living up to our reputation” — Dr. Madhu Chitkara (centre), Pro Chancellor, Chitkara University, Punjab (19,479 students and 1,328 teachers)

Campus Planning & Design Excellence
Attractive and conducive campuses providing state-of-the-art infrastructure that enables students to learn joyfully and give their best, are awarded in this category.

“We are delighted to be ranked India #1 for Campus Planning and Design Excellence. This prestigious award is testimony that our efforts towards providing a world-class learning environment that promotes academic excellence, creativity, collaboration, community engagement and holistic learning experiences are moving in the right direction. Our campus has been carefully planned to provide IT-enabled classrooms, auditorium, incubation centre, advanced research, language, and media labs. Moreover, environment sustainability is top priority and we have invested in solar panels, rainwater harvesting systems, and planted a Miyawaki forest. Our campus also provides ramps and elevators for students with special needs.” — Dr. C.T. Chakraborty (left), Principal, Thakur College of Science and Commerce, Mumbai (9,048 students and 196 teachers)

Exemplary Leadership
These awards acknowledge extraordinary education leaders from among low-profile and newly emergent private higher education institutions.

“This prestigious award coincides with the re-accreditation of our college by NAAC with the highest A++ Grade. The top leadership has been able to provide excellent administration, build an enabling learning ecosystem that blends academic innovation, social responsibility, and digital readiness, because of faculty-student support. As a result the college is well-poised to deliver Education 5.0 for the digital age. The conferment of ‘Empowered Autonomous Status’ by University of Mumbai for a period of ten years in 2023 has further motivated us to emerge as a role model college of the state and country” — Dr. Naresh Chandra (centre), Director (Education), BK Birla College, Kalyan, Mumbai (13,500 students and 305 teachers)

Digital Education Innovation
Higher education institutions integrating innovative digital technologies within curriculums and implementing IT-enabled pedagogies to enable delivery of engaging and effective teaching-learning.

“Faculty, staff, and students are elated with this award because it’s acknowledgement of our commitment to integrate advanced digital technologies into the curriculum, lecture delivery and campus infrastructure. Over the past few years we have invested heavily in IT products and process innovations with faculty and students collaborating to maximise technology usage and improve learning outcomes. HIT is also a pioneer in collaborating with industry to remain abreast with latest digital technologies and trends. Academia-industry collaboration has enabled our students to engage with real-world technology projects and improved our placements” — Prof. Basab Chaudhuri, Principal (right), Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata (4,934 students and 400 teachers)

Outstanding Achievement in Professional Education
Institutions providing globally benchmarked professional study programmes such as event management, fashion design and mass communication among others.

“We are thankful to the EW Grand Jury for recognising GAPA’s commitment to professional education — specifically accountancy and financial education. In GAPA we offer a BBA/B.Com degree programme in new and professional accountancy and financial models in association with two top-ranked colleges of Mumbai — Nagindas Khandwala College, and Thakur College of Science and Commerce. The USP of our degree programme is our curriculum which is fully industry-aligned, faculty is well-trained in experiential pedagogies and assessment practices, and student internships are mandatory. Moreover, we provide special tutoring for students writing the Chartered Accountancy and other competitive exams conducted by professional accountancy organisations. Our objective is to graduate accounting and finance professionals ready to hit the ground running” — Suchi Kothari (centre), Director, Global Academy for Professional Accountants, Mumbai (349 students and 18 teachers)

Best Academic-Industry Alliance
Institutions spearheading alliances and collaborations to bridge the academia-industry gap, promote industry internships, enhance graduate employability and job-readiness.

“Since inception, the primary objective of NLDIMS has been to bridge the gap between academia and industry through meaningful collaboration. Industry leaders and managers are regular visitors as guest lecturers, our students are connected with industry through internships, and our faculty through consultancy and research projects. For placements we have signed up with over 300 companies including Deloitte, Bloomberg, Unilever, Tata Motors and Godrej as partners. Moreover, we have established industry collaboration cells on campus to liaise for curriculum updates and skills development. We also offer a wide range of management development programmes for working professionals in industry to update their knowledge and leadership skills” — Dr. Seema Saini, CEO and Acting Director, NL Dalmia Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai (840 students and 31 teachers)

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