NITs NIRF Ranking 2026: Top NITs in India, Ranking Trends Across Categories & Ratings

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), established by the Ministry of Education (MoE), serves as India's national ranking system for evaluating higher education institutions. On this page, we will cover the NIRF rankings 2026 for the NITs as soon as they are released.

NIT NIRF Ranking 2026

NIT NIRF Ranking 2026: For engineering aspirants looking to appear for JEE Mains 2027, NITs are the primary target colleges. Therefore, knowing the top NITs in India and their current NIRF rankings is crucial for making admission-related decisions. In last year's MHRD-NIRF ranking, NIT Trichy achieved the 9th position in India. Out of all the National Institutes of Technology (NITs), 22 were ranked among the top 100 institutions.

The NIRF 2026 rankings are yet to be announced and are expected anytime soon, in September 2026. Until the 2026 rankings are released, candidates can check this page for the latest available ranking from the year 2025.

Top NITs in India As Per NIRF 2026 Rankings

The NIRF 2026 ranking will be released soon, and the list of top NITs with their 2026 NIRF rankings will be updated here across all categories! Stay tuned.

In the NIRF framework, only the top 100 institutes are assigned distinct individual ranks. Institutions outside the top 100 are grouped into rank bands (like 101-150, 151-200, 201-300) or remain unranked.

The NITs are ranked in the NIRF ranking in the following categories:

1. Overall
2. Engineering
3. Management
4. Architecture and Planning
5. Research
6. Sustainable Development Goals Category

Out of all the above categories, engineering aspirants should give importance to the NIT rankings in the engineering category. Until the NIRF 2026 rankings are released, check below the previous year's rankings:

List of Top NITs in India NIRF Ranking 2026 in Engineering Category

As per the currently available NIRF Ranking (2025), the top NITs of India are as follows:

Last year, 22 out of the 31 NITs held NIT ranks in the engineering category among the top 100. The rest of the NITs fall in rank bands between 101 and 200.

• NITs in the top 10 engineering lists: NIT Trichy is the only NIT placed among the top 10 engineering colleges. It competes head-to-head with older IITs (IIT BHU, IIT Indore) and BITS Pilani.
• NITs in the top 30 engineering lists: NIT Rourkela, NIT Surathkal, NIT Calicut, and NIT Warangal are usually ranked among the top 30 engineering colleges, outranking several second- and third-generation IITs (like IIT Patna, IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Mandi, IIT Jodhpur).
• NITs in the top 50 engineering colleges list: MNIT Jaipur, VNIT Nagpur, NIT Durgapur, and NIT Silchar are usually among the top 50 engineering colleges. They compete with leading state technical universities (DTU, Jadavpur) and top private research universities.
• NITs in the top 100 engineering colleges list: NIT Patna, NIT Jalandhar, MNNIT Allahabad, NIT Delhi, SVNIT Surat, NIT Srinagar, etc. usually fall in the rank band between 50 and 100.
• NITs in the rank band 101 to 200: NIT Goa, NIT Agartala, and most North-Eastern NITs do not usually get a place among the top 100 colleges. They fall in the rank band between 101 and 200.

NITs NIRF Engineering Ranking Over the Last 5 Years (2021-2025)

Check the trend analysis of NIRF engineering rankings of NITs over the last 5 years:

Key Observations

• Top Tier Stability: NIT Trichy, NIT Surathkal, and NIT Rourkela remain the only NITs consistently positioned inside India's national top 20. NIT Trichy holds the highest spot among all NITs across every edition.

• Rapid Ascents: NIT Delhi showed steep upward momentum, jumping from rank 194 in 2022 to the 45-65 range as permanent campus operations stabilised. NIT Puducherry moved steadily from 144 in 2021 into the top 100 by 2024-2025.

• Rank Bands in Newer Institutes: Many newer northeastern institutes (NIT Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Manipur) typically place in the 101-200 bands due to smaller batch sizes, lower RPC scores, and developing permanent campus facilities.

Also Read: IITs NIRF Ranking 2026

Apart from the engineering category, NITs have found a place in the NIRF rankings in the following categories:

Top NITs NIRF Ranks 2026 in Overall Category

In the NIRF Overall Category, all higher educational institutions in India, including IITs, IIMs, central universities (such as IISc, JNU, and BHU), and medical institutes (AIIMS). All of them compete on the same parameters. Because of this comprehensive field, far fewer NITs make the Overall Top 100 compared to the dedicated Engineering list. Check below:

NIRF Rank 2026 for NITs in Research Category

Most NITs were founded primarily as undergraduate teaching and engineering training institutions, resulting in lower ratios of full-time doctoral and post-doctoral scholars compared to older IITs and central research institutes. However, a few NITs do find their footing in this category too. Check below:

NITs NIRF Ranking 2026 in Management Category

While NITs are recognised primarily for technical education, several run dedicated Departments or Schools of Management Studies offering MBA and doctoral programs. NITs in this category compete directly against standalone business schools, including IIMs, XLRI, MDI, and the management schools of IITs (DMS/SJMSOM/VGSOM). Check rankings below:

NITs NIRF Rank 2026 in Architecture & Planning Category

Only 9 out of the 31 NITs run approved departments offering undergraduate (BArch / BPlan) and postgraduate programs in architecture and planning. NITs hold major national prominence in this stream, regularly competing for the very top spots alongside IIT Roorkee, IIT Kharagpur, and the standalone SPAs (Delhi, Bhopal, Vijayawada). Check the rankings below:

NITs NIRF Ranking 2026 in Sustainable Development Goals Category

Among all 31 National Institutes of Technology (NITs), only one institute secured a spot in this category in the recently available ranking.

• National Institute of Technology Rourkela: NIT Rourkela is the only NIT to break into this category in the NIRF 2025 ranking. Its performance was driven by dedicated research projects aligned with clean energy and climate action, green campus waste/water management initiatives, and strong community outreach and tribal empowerment programs in western Odisha.

About NIRF 2026 Ranking

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) was approved by the MHRD and launched by the Honourable Minister of Human Resource Development in September 2015. The NIRF ranking criteria for engineering colleges across India is based on five metrics:

1. Teaching, Learning & Resources (TLR)
2. Research and Professional Practice (RP)
3. Graduation Outcomes (GO)
4. Outreach & Inclusivity (OI)
5. Perception (PR)