Ask anyone about India’s top colleges and you’ll likely hear about colleges from tier 1 cities like Delhi, or Mumbai, Bengaluru and more. Yet in 2025, a number of colleges are emerging rank-wise in the NIRF ranking system from tier 2 cities like Coimbatore, Madurai and Trichy. Apart from the two colleges in Coimbatore (PSG and PSGR Krishnammal) securing their spots in the list of top 10 NIRF list, and there are a number of tier 2 city colleges consistently appearing in the top 30 list in NIRF 2025.
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Along with that, colleges like Thiagarajar College (Madurai), St. Joseph’s College (Trichy), and University College (Thiruvananthapuram) have maintained their spot in top 30 NIRF colleges list 2025. These changes show that high quality higher education is spreading beyond India’s metros. While colleges from metro cities keep on securing their top spots, like Hindu College, Miranda House, ARSD College, the progress from non-metro city colleges are worth mentioning. Reasons for this improvement in non-metro city colleges ranking can be better faculty, governance, or it could be industry engagement.
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1. Teaching, Learning & Resources (TLR)
2. Research and Professional Practices (RP)
3. Graduation Outcomes (GO)
4. Outreach and Inclusivity (OI)
5. Perception (PR)
In NIRF ranking 2025 for colleges PSG College of Arts & Science and PSGR Krishnammal College for Women from have been consistent with their ranking, with PSG college staying between 11 to 20 mark in past few years and PSGR college, though securing a 7th spot last year, has ended up with 9th rank. These two colleges from tier 2 cities set an example on the possibilities of colleges from non-metro cities to emerge.
Year | NIRF Ranking |
2025 | 10 |
2024 | 11 |
2023 | 20 |
2022 | 20 |
2021 | 19 |
2020 | 25 |
2019 | 17 |
2018 | 11 |
2017 | 11 |
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Year | TLR (100) | RPC (100) | GO (100) | OI (100) | PERCEPTION (100) |
2025 | 73.44 | 74.00 | 73.56 | 53.44 | 89.42 |
2024 | 67.40 | 67.37 | 71.92 | 53.35 | 86.79 |
2023 | 63.20 | 54.77 | 70.36 | 52.95 | 82.19 |
2022 | 63.31 | 49.54 | 75.01 | 53.08 | 77.47 |
2021 | 65.20 | 40.07 | 70.32 | 51.94 | 80.66 |
2020 | 60.37 | 40.51 | 73.95 | 51.98 | 68.22 |
2019 | 61.75 | 39.44 | 74.99 | 52.46 | 77.99 |
2018 | 61.65 | 38.37 | 65.94 | 51.89 | 82.40 |
2017 | 55.73 | 37.26 | 72.04 | 60.58 | 43.72 |
Year | NIRF Ranking |
2025 | 9 |
2024 | 7 |
2023 | 4 |
2022 | 6 |
2021 | 6 |
2020 | 10 |
2019 | 22 |
2018 | 16 |
2017 | 14 |
Year | TLR (100) | RPC (100) | GO (100) | OI (100) | PERCEPTION (100) |
2025 | 79.82 | 60.49 | 82.49 | 68.82 | 70.25 |
2024 | 73.19 | 55.22 | 81.67 | 66.27 | 74.81 |
2023 | 74.13 | 52.34 | 80.36 | 64.38 | 70.16 |
2022 | 74.20 | 48.44 | 81.91 | 64.34 | 68.21 |
2021 | 74.48 | 38.88 | 81.34 | 61.09 | 50.71 |
2020 | 74.29 | 33.44 | 84.24 | 62.39 | 45.89 |
2019 | 62.37 | 27.11 | 80.72 | 59.52 | 46.23 |
2018 | 66.63 | 21.10 | 72.84 | 60.93 | 52.83 |
2017 | 68.11 | 15.64 | 70.73 | 63.13 | 32.56 |
Apart from these two colleges mentioned above, there are a few honourable mentions for collges who, may not have secured the top 10 spots, but have secured ranks in top 30 top 50 consistently. Most of these colleges are located in cities like Madurai, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirappalli, Tuticorin and more. A few of the tier 2 colleges in NIRF college rankings are as follows.
Year | NIRF Ranking |
2025 | 20 |
2024 | 15 |
2023 | 18 |
2022 | 22 |
2021 | 23 |
2020 | 22 |
2019 | 32 |
2018 | 44 |
Year | TLR (100) | RPC (100) | GO (100) | OI (100) | PERCEPTION (100) |
2025 | 75.68 | 70.21 | 78.00 | 53.52 | 32.83 |
2024 | 68.38 | 79.31 | 75.35 | 53.46 | 33.76 |
2023 | 67.70 | 74.55 | 73.60 | 53.49 | 30.74 |
2022 | 65.50 | 69.56 | 71.49 | 53.47 | 37.44 |
2021 | 66.45 | 67.80 | 64.64 | 53.35 | 23.56 |
2020 | 64.55 | 63.75 | 67.57 | 53.85 | 36.27 |
2019 | 60.63 | 55.71 | 66.30 | 48.48 | 30.75 |
2018 | 61.85 | 33.16 | 56.70 | 41.19 | 39.19 |
Year | NIRF Rank |
2025 | 23 |
2024 | 22 |
2023 | 26 |
2022 | 24 |
2021 | 25 |
2020 | 23 |
2019 | 23 |
2018 | 18 |
Year | TLR (100) | RPC (100) | GO (100) | OI (100) | PERCEPTION (100) |
2025 | 76.56 | 63.30 | 75.09 | 54.83 | 28.12 |
2024 | 73.69 | 56.71 | 73.94 | 54.44 | 17.45 |
2023 | 77.58 | 42.88 | 73.06 | 54.79 | 10.52 |
2022 | 75.61 | 38.15 | 73.57 | 55.72 | 19.92 |
2021 | 75.09 | 31.83 | 70.63 | 56.68 | 14.37 |
2020 | 75.74 | 30.22 | 77.15 | 54.24 | 15.37 |
2019 | 73.60 | 20.35 | 79.06 | 53.62 | 17.63 |
2018 | 75.58 | 16.82 | 71.68 | 48.35 | 20.09 |
Year | NIRF Rank |
2025 | 25 |
2024 | 25 |
2023 | 25 |
2022 | 26 |
2021 | 27 |
2020 | 31 |
2019 | 39 |
2018 | 28 |
Year | TLR (100) | RPC (100) | GO (100) | OI (100) | PERCEPTION (100) |
2025 | 71.45 | 60.69 | 77.83 | 49.39 | 45.09 |
2024 | 63.84 | 61.55 | 75.46 | 48.61 | 42.43 |
2023 | 68.13 | 48.92 | 73.59 | 46.72 | 48.24 |
2022 | 67.51 | 49.77 | 73.08 | 46.59 | 41.96 |
2021 | 66.72 | 47.17 | 64.61 | 46.08 | 45.73 |
2020 | 64.14 | 43.88 | 65.15 | 44.31 | 53.12 |
2019 | 61.85 | 36.07 | 61.43 | 42.01 | 49.94 |
2018 | 62.67 | 32.48 | 55.65 | 38.20 | 67.41 |
Year | NIRF Rank |
2025 | 22 |
2024 | 28 |
Year | TLR (100) | RPC (100) | GO (100) | OI (100) | PERCEPTION (100) |
2025 | 75.91 | 71.90 | 77.17 | 57.75 | 10.35 |
2024 | 62.25 | 65.44 | 77.46 | 57.48 | 9.63 |
Year | NIRF Rank |
2025 | 52 |
Year | TLR (100) | RPC (100) | GO (100) | OI (100) | PERCEPTION (100) |
2025 | 69.11 | 32.88 | 78.78 | 54.64 | 17.36 |
Year | NIRF Rank |
2025 | 56 |
2024 | 53 |
Year | TLR (100) | RPC (100) | GO (100) | OI (100) | PERCEPTION (100) |
2025 | 72.24 | 43.05 | 57.30 | 45.77 | 38.64 |
2024 | 67.64 | 43.74 | 58.12 | 45.83 | 29.71 |
Note: Students are also advised to check the NIRF colleges list 2025 for an overall understanding of the top colleges.
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