HRD Ministry to rank medical, dental colleges from this year

New Delhi: From this year, students will be able to know where a particular medical, dental and law college stands in terms of standard of education as the HRD ministry has included these institutions in its India Rankings 2017 which will be released on April 4.

The HRD ministry had released the first-ever national rankings last year when it had included Technical, Management, University and Pharmacy institutions as categories.

"From this year medical, dental and law colleges will also be ranked," a source told PTI.

In the coming years, however, it is expected the number of medical, dental and law colleges will significantly go up.

President Pranab Mukherjee will release the rankings in the first week of April at an event where HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar would also be present.

Another key aspect of the rankings this year is that institutions will also be given weightage over the number of patents or path-breaking research that is conducted by them, it is learnt.

Unlike last year, when each category had a separate list, the India Rankings 2017, would have a single list where the best institutions from all categories would compete against each other.

However, an additional category wise list may also be released.

"There may be a single list of say the hundred best colleges in the country whether they are varsities, IITs, IIMs, Medical or law colleges. However in addition, category wise lists will also be released," an official source said.