Rajiv Gandhi University has finally clinched a place among top 100 universities of the country. Previous year it managed the 124^th spot and after climbing the ladder by a steep 25 steps it has now embarked on a new mission – to be among the top five. If the university’s current feat of garnering a spot among top 100 is laudable, its future vision to be among best five is equally appreciable. This spotlight was very necessary not only for RGU itself, but also for the state which is striving to make its presence felt in higher education landscape of the country.

The system of ranking universities have not only become an absolute necessity these days, they have also become a sort of obsession among the education fraternity in both in India and across the globe . There is no way we can go without this since it plays a big role in shaping the opinions of many stakeholders.All the emerging economies of world are increasingly adopting this ranking system as key strategic and promotional tools to attract and retain students & staff, research funding and for enhancing their overall reputation. It has now almost become an unwritten law that the reputation and acceptability of a university will be based on rank it has acquired.

With the advent of globalization, global rankings have turned out to be real game changers due to their sheer range and influence. And since higher education is now an international concept altogether,the practice of global rankings has emerged as a powerful indicator of the knowledge-producing and talent-attracting capacity of nations. There are four or five major university ranking indexes in the world that enjoy solid acceptances and sadly the Indian universities have ranked poorly in these big league rankings. Thus the necessity of having an own university ranking system was felt so that an extra urge for betterment of higher education can be infused which would usher in a more healthy competitive academic atmosphere. It’s an idea to recognise the best and to act as an inspiration for the low rankers to make good the deficiencies and do better next time. National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) has been introduced by the Ministry of Human Resource Development primarily for addressing these aims effectively.Though in the initial years, it is all set to be the benchmark for overall quality quotient of the country’s universities based on which the future career aspirants would presumably take their admission decisions.

RGU has made a marvellous  achievement and that too based out of a lesser discussed part of the country so far as academics is concerned. It would thus be appropriate to call this a pivotal step, since it will be the guiding and inspiring force for the march forward.