Private Universities Closing the Gap on IITs, Finds New KPMG Analysis of NIRF Rankings

Study by KPMG has reaffirmed consistent leadership of IITs, particularly IIT Madras, which topped “Overall” and “Engineering” categories in NIRF 2024. IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, and IIT Kharagpur have also maintained their ranking among top five.

India leading higher education institutions continue to evolve, with private universities steadily narrowing gap with their public counterparts, states a report by KPMG. Report titled “Insights from NIRF 2024 Rankings: How Indian Higher Education is Evolving,” highlights shifting balance in research, innovation, and employability outcomes across India’s higher education spectrum.

BITS Pilani Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ramgopal Rao sharing his opinion on report writes on X: “shows how NIRF data, when carefully examined, can reveal fascinating trends about the growth and diversification of Indian higher education.” He added that the insights “reflect the growing competitiveness between IITs, state-funded universities, and leading private players.”

IITs Continue to Dominate Major Categories

Study by KPMG has reaffirmed consistent leadership of IITs, particularly IIT Madras, which topped “Overall” and “Engineering” categories in NIRF 2024. IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, and IIT Kharagpur have also maintained their ranking among top five. Report highlights that together top ten engineering institutions contribute over 40 percent of India’s total Scopus-indexed publications, indicating their continued research dominance.

Private Universities Strengthening Their Research Profile

KPMG’s analysis points to a notable rise among private universities, especially those with strong multidisciplinary ecosystems. BITS Pilani, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, and VIT Vellore emerged as standout performers, improving their research and faculty metrics significantly between 2021 and 2024.

Prof. Rao remarked that “such consistent improvement reflects an intentional focus on research infrastructure, global partnerships, and innovation driven curricula.” He noted that gap between IITs and top private universities is “visibly shrinking” as more private campuses invest in faculty development and interdisciplinary research.

IITs vs Private Universities: Growth Trends (2021–2024)

KPMG’s comparison highlights how both type of institutions have evolved in research, employability, and inclusivity scores over past three NIRF Ranking cycles.

Data also shows that while IITs maintain upper hand in absolute scores, private institutions have improved faster across nearly every metric of NIRF. Their major gains were seen in employability outcomes and inclusivity, reflecting better student diversity and stronger ties with industry.

Regional Strengths and State Universities’ Performance

Among different regions of India, southern region continues to dominate with 45% of top 100 universities coming from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Telangana. However, Gujarat and Rajasthan have emerged as new centres of institutional growth, with more universities entering into NIRF top 200.

Among government universities, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), University of Delhi, and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) continue to hold strong positions due to their consistent academic and research output.

Improved Employability and Industry Linkages

KPMG in its analysis found 11 percent improvement in average employability scores between 2021 and 2024, indicating that Indian universities are becoming more industry aligned. IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay lead in placement outcomes, while BITS Pilani and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham have emerged as private-sector leaders in same metric.