Manipur University

How is Manipur University ranked in 2026?

As of mid-2026, the most recent published ranking places Manipur University, Imphal in the 101-150 band among all Indian universities in the NIRF University category (NIRF 2025), the same band it held in NIRF 2024 and NIRF 2023. The NIRF India Rankings 2026 had not been released at the time of writing (the Ministry of Education typically publishes the new cycle between July and September), so NIRF 2025 remains the latest official benchmark for this central university. Alongside this, Manipur University is accredited with a NAAC B+ grade and a CGPA of 2.63 out of 4 (Cycle 3, awarded May 2023). It does not currently feature in the QS World University Rankings or QS Asia tables, so its standing is best read through NIRF and NAAC.

For a state-headquartered central university serving the North East, sitting consistently inside the top 150 universities nationally signals steady, mid-tier national recognition rather than volatile movement. The sections below set out the year-wise figures, the trajectory, and how Manipur University sits against comparable institutions.

Year-Wise Rankings

The table below collects every verifiable ranking position held by Manipur University across recent NIRF cycles, separated by category. It answers the question "what rank has Manipur University actually held, and in which list?" Read it by category: the University category compares it only against other universities, while the Overall category pools universities, colleges and standalone institutes together, which is why the Overall band sits lower. NIRF publishes individual scores only for institutions ranked inside the top 100; universities placed in a rank band of 101-150 or 151-200 are listed alphabetically without a disclosed score, which is why the Score column reads "Not disclosed (band rank)."

The clear takeaway is consistency: Manipur University has held the 101-150 University band across three straight cycles (2023, 2024 and 2025), so an applicant can treat "top 150 university in India" as a dependable, repeated result rather than a one-off. The more interesting movement is in the Overall category, where it climbed from the 151-200 band in 2024 into the 101-150 band in 2025, indicating its position strengthened when measured against the full national pool of universities, colleges and institutes.

Ranking Trajectory of Manipur University

Manipur University's NIRF University-category position has been flat in the best sense: 101-150 in 2023, 101-150 in 2024, and 101-150 in 2025. For a band-ranked institution, holding the same band across three cycles means the university has retained its relative national standing even as the number of participating institutions grows each year, which itself requires sustained performance on teaching, research and outreach metrics.

The standout signal is the Overall category. In NIRF 2024 the university sat in the 151-200 Overall band, and in NIRF 2025 it moved up into the 101-150 Overall band. Because the Overall list mixes universities with colleges and standalone institutes, crossing from the 151-200 tier into the 101-150 tier is a genuine improvement in competitive position, not just a reshuffle. Paired with the NAAC B+ (2.63 CGPA) accreditation secured in May 2023, the trajectory points to an institution consolidating its standing rather than slipping. The next checkpoint is NIRF 2026, expected later in the year, where the question for aspirants is whether Manipur University can defend the Overall gain it made in 2025.

How Manipur University Compares

Among centrally-funded universities in the North East, Manipur University's 101-150 NIRF University band (2025) places it in the same broad tier as several peer central universities, while the region's top performers, such as Tezpur University and the North-Eastern Hill University, have historically ranked inside the top 100 of the University list. Within Manipur itself, Manipur University is the oldest and largest general central university, and it should not be conflated with NIT Manipur or the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Manipur, which are technical institutes ranked on the engineering rather than the university framework.

For an applicant, the practical reading is this: Manipur University is a top-150 national university and a top-150 Overall institution (NIRF 2025), accredited NAAC B+ (CGPA 2.63, 2023). It is a strong, government-funded option for general degree, postgraduate and research programmes in the North East, sitting a tier below the region's NIRF top-100 universities but clearly within the upper half of the roughly 1,000-plus universities that participate in NIRF each cycle. Because Manipur University does not appear in QS or THE world tables, NIRF and NAAC are the most meaningful comparators to use when weighing it against peers.