NIRF 2025: Top universities penalised for research retractions, some still improve ranks

The Ministry of Education has released the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2025 for Higher Education Institutions. A total of 7,692 unique institutions submitted 14,163 applications offering themselves for ranking in the “Overall,” along with nine category-specific, and eight domain-specific rankings. This is the tenth such list to be published.

Following strong criticism from academia and the media that many research retractions stem from institutions attempting to climb the rankings through fraudulent or unethical practices, Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairperson of the National Board of Accreditation (NBA), said that the NIRF would introduce penalisation for “research retractions” starting this year and continue it in the coming academic years.

According to the NIRF 2025 booklet, this reform to penalise institutions with research retractions has been developed and introduced for rankings in the Overall, Engineering, Universities, and Research Institutions categories, implying the penalty was likely not applied in other categories. An analysis of the rankings, however, shows that institutions that were red flagged by one watchdog improved their research scores in NIRF while two other institutions that had faced flak from watchdogs showed a decline in research scores. As of the time of publishing this article, it remains unclear how the negative marking for research retractions has been applied, since the detailed methodology for 2025 rankings is still unavailable on the NIRF portal.

High performers flagged by one watchdog

Research and Professional Practice (R&P) is one of the five parameters used to determine institutional rankings. In the overall category, it carries a weight of 0.30, accounting for 100 marks out of 500, alongside four other parameters. The weightage and marks differ in category-specific and domain-specific rankings. NIRF uses third-party sources to extract information on scholarly output (including research publications, citations, and patents) for each applicant institution. For the 2025 NIRF, data covering the period from 2021 to 2023 was considered.

According to the Indian Research Watch (IRW), six of the ten universities with the highest increase in Research and Professional Practice (R&P) scores in the 2025 NIRF rankings in the overall category are among 124 institutions worldwide red flagged by the RI² Index. The RI², developed by Professor Lokman Meho at the American University of Beirut, is a metric “that evaluates institutions on publications appearing in journals that were recently removed from Scopus or Web of Science retractions, and methodological, ethical, or authorship violations, and citation practices aimed at artificially boosting institutional metrics.” The six universities (extreme anomalies; systemic integrity risks) appeared in NIRF with high increase of R&P scores are Symbiosis International, Chandigarh University, Graphic Era University, Christ University, Amity University, and UPES.

The R&P scores in 2025 compared with 2024 of Symbiosis International’s score rose from 27.49 to 38.34, improving its overall rank from 52 to 40. Chandigarh University’s R&P score increased from 39.66 to 49.13, maintaining its rank at 32. Graphic Era University’s score went up from 33.86 to 41.01, with its rank improving from 79 to 72. Christ University’s score climbed from 22.05 to 28.34, while its rank shifted from 90 to 96. Amity University’s R&P score rose from 50.31 to 55.83, with its rank improving from 49 to 37. UPES increased its score from 41.19 to 45.60, with its rank moving from 59 to 64.

The case of Anna University

Further, according to The Post Pub (funded by the Open Research Funders Group and Digital Science), which accessed data from the Retraction Watch Database, and has a dashboard on retractions, India has recorded 5,412 retractions. Retraction Watch is a blog that reports on retractions of scientific research papers, and maintains a database on the retractions. This is backed by the Center for Scientific Integrity, a nonprofit organisation based in the United States. According to Retraction Watch, as of September, its database contains more than 60,000 retractions.

The dashboard in Post Pub includes data dating back to the 1990s, and until 2024, Anna University ranks first globally with 968 retractions, while Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, with 298 retractions, stands second in India and twelfth worldwide. Out of Anna University’s 968 retractions, 279 are categorised as “Serious,” 567 as “Integrity,” 58 as “Research,” 40 as “Supplemental,” and 24 as “System.” Meanwhile, 298 retractions from Saveetha include 178 classified as “Serious,” 102 under “Integrity,” 15 related to “Research,” and 3 categorised as “System.”

As per the booklet the new reforms apply only to four categories in the NIRF, which otherwise includes nine category-specific rankings, eight domain-specific rankings. For instance, Anna University recorded significant declines in its Research and Professional Practice (R&P) scores across four categories after the 2025 reforms.

In the Overall category, its R&P score dropped from 63.51 in 2024 (Rank 20) to 54.88 in 2025 (Rank 29), a fall of 8.63 points. In Engineering, the score fell from 71.32 (Rank 14) in 2024 to 62.80 (Rank 20) in 2025, a decline of 8.52 points. In the University category, the R&P score slid from 63.51 in 2024 (Rank 13) to 54.88 in 2025 (Rank 20), down by 8.63 points. For Research Institutions, Anna University’s sub-scores declined as well: Quantitative Research dropped from 60.10 in 2024 to 50.18 in 2025 (down 9.92), while Qualitative Research slipped from 57.47 to 54.74 (down 2.73), with its rank falling from 17 to 26.

In the State Public Universities category, in 2024, Anna University led with an R&P score of 89.07, but in 2025 slipped to second place with 79.59, marking a decline of 9.48 points.

According to NIRF data, the 2024 metrics for State Public Universities were distributed as follows: Combined Metric for Publications (30 marks), Combined Metric for Quality of Publications (30), IPR and Patents: Published and Granted (15), Footprint of Projects and Professional Practice (15), and Publications and Citations in Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) (10). In 2025, however, the SDG component was removed. The revised distribution shows only 95 marks out of 100, given as: Combined Metric for Publications (30), Combined Metric for Quality of Publications (35), IPR and Patents (15), and Footprint of Projects and Professional Practice (15).

A cross-check with other State Public Universities suggested that the 9.48-point decline between 2024 and 2025 may partly be due to a miscalculation in the tally of marks. To clarify, we have written to NIRF requesting the detailed methodology for this year, particularly on how research retractions are being penalised and how the revised metrics were calculated.

According to Dr. Achal Agarwal, founder of IRW and The Post Pub, the R&P score for 2025 is now calculated out of 95 instead of 100. This change affects all universities and naturally results in a lower score compared with 2024. He said that, given these discrepancies and for the sake of transparency and fairness, NIRF must release the list of how much penalties were given to which university. In its current mild form, penalties are unlikely to have any effect on retractions.

The case of Saveetha

Saveetha Dental College, under the Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Chennai, entered the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) subject rankings for dentistry at eighteenth place in 2022, rising to thirteenth in 2023, before slipping to twenty-fourth in 2024 and twenty-sixth in 2025. A 2024 study by Jian Wang and Wei Liu found that much of Saveetha Dental College’s research output was published in journals not recognised in major global indexes, with thousands of papers appearing in outlets unrelated to dentistry. The study also found that many publications were short correspondence pieces or contained incorrect references. According to Retraction Watch data, papers associated with Saveetha saw 27 retractions in 2022, 99 in 2023, 80 in 2024, and 90 more by February 2025.

With the new penalisation reforms in place, Saveetha saw a decline in the ranking in the four categories where the penalty was levied, but an increase in Dental category. In the Overall category, its Research and Professional Practice (R&P) score dropped from 60.87 in 2024 (Rank 22) to 56.28 in 2025 (Rank 23), a fall of 4.59 points and one rank. In Engineering, the college saw a hike, moving from an R&P score of 60.0 in 2024 (Rank 53) to 61.58 in 2025 (Rank 45), a rise of 1.58 points and eight ranks. In the University category, its R&P score fell from 60.87 in 2024 (Rank 11) to 56.28 in 2025 (Rank 13), a drop of 4.59 points and two ranks. For Research Institutions, Saveetha recorded a shift in sub-scores: in 2024, it had Quantitative Research at 62.08 and Qualitative Research at 57.03 (Rank 20). In 2025, Quantitative Research fell to 55.05 (down by 7.03), while Qualitative Research rose to 76.06 (up by 19.03), with its rank holding steady at 20.

In the Dental category, where Saveetha is one of the Indian dental institutes to feature in global rankings such as QS, its Research and Professional Practice (R&P) score rose from 86.91 in 2024 to 87.95 in 2025, an increase of 1.04. Despite this, its overall rank in the Dental category slipped from 1 to 2.

We have sent emails to both Saveetha and Anna University seeking their responses regarding the retractions and the changes in R&P scores. There has been no response yet.