SIRF, digital dashboard to upload data: Maharashtra govt takes efforts to improve NIRF rankings of universities

Maharashtra’s higher and technical education minister Chandrakant Patil made the announcement on Monday following a spree of meetings held on the same day to discuss the department’s contribution toward Vision Maharashtra 2047, including two separate meetings – one each with Governor of Maharashtra Acharya Devvrat and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. It included discussion on an important concern – poor performance by Maharashtra’s public institutions in the recently declared NIRF 2025 rankings.

Stating that it is mandatory for all universities to complete the data filling on the digital dashboard within the next 15 days, Patil said that dashboard will serve as the central tool for digital transparency in higher education, expediting faculty recruitment, and improving academic quality.

Insisting that the data has to be error-free, Patil said, ” Accordingly, each university will be assigned an independent, dedicated team of at least two members. This team will guide the universities and personally visit them to verify information. This will ensure that the data on the dashboard remains flawless and accurate. Universities should regularly review their functioning. An integrated review meeting will be held every three months, which will help achieve better outcomes.”

A senior official from the higher and technical education department further explained that this live dashboard which will consist of all data metrics from national and international level rankings will also serve as a basis for SIRF ranking to be declared soon for all 30 public institutions of higher education across the state.

“The dashboard will have a standard template including various parameters. Based on the observations from the dashboard, institutions will be given targets to achieve in order to improve respective scores in parameters where they are found lagging behind. The idea is to prepare public institutions for better performance in the next cycle of NIRF ranking,” said the official.