The alphabetical family monopolising the business school pole positions in the country have got a sequential sibling: IIT Delhi’s Department of Management Studies (DMS).

DMS has advanced one position in the management institution segment to rank No. 4 after the IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) for 2022.

The A-B-C IIMs now have a D for company.

Miranda House under Delhi University (DU) has been ranked the country’s best college for the sixth consecutive year while Jadavpur University is fourth among varsities on the list prepared by the Union education ministry. IIT Kharagpur has ranked sixth in the overall performance category.

Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan released the NIFR on Friday.

Hindu College under DU placed second after Miranda College, followed by Presidency College, Chennai.

Then come Loyola College, Chennai; Lady Shri Ram College under DU; PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, Coimbatore; and Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College under DU. Kirori Mal College, affiliated to DU, is at No. 10 while St Stephen’s College has dropped three notches to the 11th spot.

In the NIRF’s overall performance category, IIT Madras has topped the list, followed by IISc, Bangalore, IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee, IIT Guwahati, AIIMS, Delhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

JNU’s No. 10 spot in the overall performance category marks a slide from the ninth rank last year. It has, however, retained its second position in the university category. Jamia Millia Islamia, which was sixth in the university category last year, has improved its position to No. 3. In the overall category, it has retained its 13th rank.

In the university segment, IISc has ranked first, followed by JNU, Jamia Millia Islamia, Jadavpur University, Amrita Viswa Vidyapeetham, Banaras Hindu University, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Calcutta University, Vellore Institute of Technology and University of Hyderabad.

AIIMS, Delhi, tops the medical category. Bengal’s topmost institution in this category is the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research (rank 21).

Two institutions from Bengal — the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences and IIT Kharagpur — have made it to the top 10 in the law category, ranked fifth and sixth, respectively.

In architecture, IIT Kharagpur has ranked third and the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, sixth.

Miranda House principal Bijayalaxmi Nanda said the college’s continued success in the rankings had made the students more confident and motivated.

“Our college continued its activities, including teaching, learning, research and outreach, throughout the period that the institutions were closed for the Covid outbreak. We do research projects and encourage students to set up start-ups. All that work has given us results,” she said.

IIT Delhi’s DMS, which was fifth last year in the NIRF’s management institution category, has swapped places with IIM Kozhikode this time.

Seema Sharma, head of the department of management studies at IIT Delhi, said the DMS provided specialised management training with focus on the technology sector. It offers students a technology management course as part of its MBA programme.

“The students are taught about business analytics, big data analytics and artificial intelligence and are oriented towards research. Being located in IIT Delhi, the students benefit from the technology-driven environment and the entrepreneurship ecosystem,” Sharma said.

“The social sector engagements make our students sensitive towards the problems of the bottom of the pyramid on the one hand, and on the other hand the intensive corporate interactions along with a rigorous curriculum prepare them to lead the industry for a sustainable world.”

The fee charged from MBA students at the DMS is Rs 11 lakh for two years. The top IIMs charge over Rs 20 lakh for the two-year course.

The NIRF brings out separate lists of the best 100 in the categories of universities, colleges and institutions in the domains of engineering, management, pharmacy, law, medical, dental, architecture and research.

The institutions are ranked based on data provided by them on parameters such as teaching, learning and resources, research and professional practice, and graduate outcomes.

Pradhan, the education minister, said nearly 7,500 institutions took part in the ranking process this year. He asked University Grants Commission chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar to make either the NIRF ranking or accreditation mandatory for institutions seeking recognition under Section 12(B) of the UGC Act, which makes them eligible for grants from the higher education regulator.