India, Oct. 19 -- India's higher education institutions have shown "outcome-led systemic improvements" over the past decade, driven by faculty upskilling and research expansion, according to a KPMG study based on the analysis of National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings in various categories. The percentage of PhD qualified faculty members is reaching nearly 60% in the overall category in 2025 for the top 100 ranked institutions with management institutes reporting over 90% and engineering colleges over 80%, the study found.

"Top-ranked institutions now report over 73% PhD faculty across most categories," it said.

Launched by the Union education ministry in 2015, NIRF rankings are based on evaluating performance of instit...