India's Best Colleges: How the colleges were ranked

For the past 21 years, the India Today Group has been ranking India's best colleges. This year's survey has been done in association with Nielsen to determine the best colleges in 13 streams-arts, science, commerce, engineering, medicine, law, BBA, BCA, mass communication and journalism, fashion technology, fine arts, hotel management and education.

For arts, science and commerce, colleges in 18 major cities were considered - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Pune, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Coimbatore and Patna. For the remaining streams, colleges from all over India were considered.

Research started in December 2016, using secondary data sources such as the internet, published reports and the Association of Indian Universities Handbook. A comprehensive list of more than 2,965 colleges was drawn up in each stream. Then, experts in each city were provided a structured questionnaire with 100 points in all for five parameters-reputation of the college, quality of academic input, student care, infrastructure and job prospects.

The experts rated the colleges in their city for arts, science and commerce and in their respective zones (north, south, east and west) for the remaining streams. To eliminate bias, they did not rate their own college. The overall perceptual score of each college was calculated and a cumulative national list of colleges was prepared. Then, a different panel of experts rated the institutions in their respective streams. Based on these ratings, perceptual scores were given and the colleges ranked-50 colleges in arts, science and commerce; 25 in engineering, medicine and law; and 10 in BBA, BCA, mass communication and journalism, fashion, fine arts, hotel management and education.

For the final rankings, the colleges were asked to share factual data. The same was done for institutions that have performed well in the past few years and show potential to emerge as future leaders. The colleges that did not share the factual data/refused to participate in the survey were not considered for the final rankings. Faculties of universities for streams other than law were not considered. But individual colleges enjoying the status of deemed universities were a part of the study. The factual and perceptual scores were combined with 50:50 weightage. The final scores were arrived at and the rankings fixed.