National Institutional Ranking Framework Research Articles

Preface

5th International Conference on Civil Engineering Trends and Challenges for Sustainability (CTCS-2023) (Under the Aegis of ICETE 2023 Multi-Conference Platform) 19th & 20th December 2023 Organized by Department of Civil Engineering About NITTE (Deemed to be University) Nitte (Deemed-to-be University) has its roots in a group of Institutions established by the Nitte Education Trust. The Trust was established in 1979 by one of India’s respected Statesman, Late Justice KS Hegde, Supreme Court Judge and Speaker of Lok Sabha, with the mission of empowering rural youth through quality education and healthcare. The Trust has established 36 institutions spread in three campuses at Nitte, Mangalore and Bangalore. It offers education in diverse areas of learning including health professions education, engineering, management, humanities, general education, vocational training, and school/pre-university education. The University offers a total of 98 programs in the disciplines of engineering, medicine, allied health sciences, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, physiotherapy, speech and audiology, biological sciences, media & communication, commerce, science, management, and Architecture. It has 10,000+ students, over 875 faculty members and over 2475 support staff on roll. The University campuses are spread over 52 acres in Deralakatte-Paneer areas of Mangalore and 110 acres in Nitte. The University received A+ Grading in NAAC accreditation in 2021. It has been consistently placed in the Top 65-80 rank band in NIRF. The University is placed in the 401 to 450 Rank Band in the QS Rankings for Asia Region. It has received Diamond rating in the QS I-Gauge India Ratings. The Constituent colleges of the university have good standing in their disciplines in the NIRF rankings. In 2023, Nitte University has obtained 65th Rank, the dental college ranked 5th and pharmacy colleges ranked 46th in NIRF. The BPharm program of the University is accredited by NBA. The teaching hospital is accredited by both NABH and NABL. About the Institute Nitte Mahalinga Adyantaya Memorial Institute of Technology(NMAMIT), Nitte, established in 1986 and recognized by the All India Council for Technical Education, New Delhi, has been a constituent college of Nitte (Deemed to be University), Mangaluru, since June 2022. Rank band 101-150 in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2023 by Ministry of Education, Government of India, the College has been placed under ‘Platinum’ category for having high industry linkages by the AICTE-CII Survey of Industry-Linked Technical Institutes 2020. NMAMIT, the off-campus centre of Nitte DU located at Nitte village, has active collaborations with several international universities and organizations for faculty and student exchanges, research, internships and placements. The Institute offers UG engineering program in eleven disciplines; Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI&ML), Artificial Intelligence & Data Science (AI&DS), Biotechnology (BT), Civil Engineering(CIV), Computer & Communication Engineering (CCE), Computer Science & Engineering(CS), Electrical & Electronics Engineering (E&E), Electronics & Communication Engineering (E&C), Information Science & Engineering (IS), Mechanical Engineering(MECH) and Robotics & Artificial Intelligence (R&AI ). Out of these programs, seven UG programs i.e., BT, CIV, CS, E&E, E&C, IS and MECH are accredited by NBA, New Delhi under Tier - I category till 30 June 2025. The institute also offers PG program M.Tech. in seven disciplines namely Construction Technology, Computer Science & Engineering, Cyber Security, Electric Vehicle Technology, Machine Design, Structural Engineering and VLSI Design & Embedded Systems as well as MCA program. All the departments have qualified research guides for students interested in taking up research work leading to Ph.D. List of About the Organizing Department, About the Conference, Keynote Speakers, Theme of the Conference, Thrust Areas, Publication Partner, Paper Submission, Accommodation, Conference Location and Contact Us are available in this Pdf.

SWOC Analysis: Impact of Methodological Changes in Top 20 NIRF-ranked Management Institutions on Branding Strategy

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the impact of methodological changes in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) on the branding strategies of the top 20 management institutions in India for the year 2023. Researcher seeks to identify how alterations in ranking parameters affect these institutions' competitive positioning and branding approaches. Design/Methodology: The study employs SWOC (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Challenges) analysis to examine the internal strengths and weaknesses of management institutions, as well as the external opportunities and challenges arising from shifts in NIRF ranking parameters. Data collection involves a comprehensive review of ranking methodologies, institutional profiles available from the secondary source only. Results/Discussion/Analysis: Findings reveal the nuanced impact of methodological changes on branding strategy development. Internal strengths such as academic reputation and faculty expertise can be leveraged to capitalize on new ranking criteria, while weaknesses such as infrastructure limitations may require strategic investments. External opportunities such as emerging industry trends offer avenues for differentiation, while challenges such as increased competition necessitate proactive adaptation. Outcome: The analysis provides actionable insights for management institutions to refine their branding strategies in response to evolving ranking methodologies. By aligning internal capabilities with external opportunities and effectively addressing challenges, institutions can maintain or enhance their competitive advantage in the marketplace. Originality/Value: This study contributes to the literature by offering a systematic analysis of the interplay between ranking methodology changes and branding strategy development in the context of management education. The insights generated are valuable for institutions navigating the dynamic landscape of educational rankings and seeking to optimize their positioning and visibility. Type of Paper: Exploratory Research Analysis

Does higher ranking ensure higher student satisfaction: evidence from higher education institutions in India

PurposeProspective students and other stakeholders in the education system use global and national rankings as a measure of the quality of education offered by different higher educational institutions. The ranking of an Institution is seen as a measure of reputation and has a significant role in attracting students. But are students happy in the top-ranked institutions? Does a high rank translate into high student satisfaction? This study answers this question taking data from top educational institutions in India.Design/methodology/approachThis study examines how the top-ranked higher education institutions in India fare on student satisfaction. Using the data on key performance indicators published by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) and student satisfaction scores of these institutions reported by NAAC, the study explores a possible relationship between the ranking of an institution and its student satisfaction score.FindingsThe study finds no significant relationship between the ranking of an institution and its student satisfaction score. The only institutional performance dimension which has a positive correlation with student satisfaction is graduate outcome. The diversity dimension is seen to be negatively correlated with student satisfaction.Practical implicationsThe importance of modifying the ranking frameworks to account for the real drivers of student satisfaction is highlighted. The items in the student satisfaction survey should be regularly updated to reflect the actual concerns of the students. This is very important given the fact that the number of Indian students going abroad for higher education recorded a six-year high in 2022 at 750,365.Originality/valueWith more than 50,000 institutions catering to over 40 million students, India has the largest higher education system in the world. Given the high level of competition among these institutions, ranking and accreditation have become important parameters used by students for selection of an institution. But do top-ranked higher education institutions have the most satisfied student community? The assumption is disproved using the most credible secondary data. This study is the first of its kind in the Indian context. It has huge implications for the most respected ranking frameworks.

Unveiling College Selection Factors: A Study of Management students in Indian Private B-Schools

This study examines the factors influencing the choices of management students in India when selecting private business schools. A sample of 161 students from the top 100 privatesas per the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). B-Schools in India were surveyed to explore the key determinants. The findings reveal that placement opportunities, location, and social media posts play a significant role in influencing students' selection of private business schools. The research emphasizes the importance of considering these factors when designing marketing strategies for private business schools in India. Additionally, it raises concerns about the growing impact of social media on the decision-making process. The study provides valuable insights into the decision-making behaviours of management students and offers implications for educational institutions and policymakers. These findings can be utilized by educational institutions to develop effective marketing strategies to attract prospective students and by policymakers to improve the quality of higher education in India. The study highlights the importance of targeting, segmenting, and positioning promotional strategies according to individual needs based on gender, class, and SECs. Overall, this study makes a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge on B-School enrollment and marketing and can be used by stakeholders in the education sector to improve their marketing and enrollment strategies.

Impact of Green HRM Practices on Job Performance of Faculties with Special Reference to Select Higher Educational Institutions, Tamil Nadu

Green HRM practices are considered the most important aspect of every organization. The study aims to identify the perception of faculties and the impact of Green HRM practices on the job performance of faculties in select higher educational institutions. Teaching faculties are the backbone of higher educational institutions. So, the well-being of the faculties is essential for the success of an institution. The study adopted a descriptive research method and a Simple random sampling technique. Samples consist of 200 teaching faculties in five colleges ranked by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in Tamil Nadu and the collected data is analyzed using various statistical tools such as Exploratory factor analysis, ANOVA, correlation and multiple regressions. Hence, better green HRM practices are essential for every institution which contributes towards job involvement, job attachment, and job commitment. This paper tries to prove the relationship between various Green HRM practices with the Job performance of teaching faculties in select higher educational institutions in Tamil Nadu

Paving the Way: Exploring Influential Factors that Shape Career Preferences among Students in Higher Education Institutions - Insights from Selected Arts and Science Colleges in Kerala

The aim of the research was to examine the elements that influence the career choices of university students. It is a selected study conducted across ten Kerala arts and science colleges ranked in the 2022 ranking of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). A sample of 375 students was selected from the selected higher education institutions. The results show that gender is significantly related to career choice. In addition, except for family factors like parents ‘education and family support, all other factors examined show weak, negative correlation with career choice. Family members’ profession and parental pressure prove to have significant negative association with the career path choice of students. Among the financial factors examined, future job opportunities, knowledge of high-paying jobs, job security, salary increases and perks, and opportunities for promotion and growth show a significant association with students' career choices. All of the personality factors examined correlate significantly with the career choice of the students. Among social factors, with the exception of teacher advice, college career guidance services, and alumni/friend success stories, all other variables studied show a significant association with career choice. Investigating on the factors that impact the career decisions of students, the results show that parental pressure, support from family members, future career opportunities, personal interest, social recognition related to a career, campus placements, influence of social media, and graduate/friend success stories have a significant impact on the students' choice of career. Among these predictor variables, the variables that have the greatest influence on career choices are parental pressure, future job opportunities, personal interest and campus placement. The study recommends universities to have an active careers advice center with a team consisting of a full-time placement officer and a student advisor. Recommendations for conducting psychometric tests to assess skills and conducting parent awareness programs to avoid parental pressure on students' career choices are recommended. Key Words: Career choice, career guidance, family factors, financial factors, personal factors, social factors.

College NIRF Rank Predictor using ML

Abstract: The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is an annual ranking system initiated by the Indian government to rank higher education institutions based on several parameters such as teaching, research, and outreach activities. In this project, we propose to develop a machine learning model that can predict the NIRF rank of an institution. Here we have used 2020 NIRF ranking dataset from Kaggle. Then based on the score of previous years, we predict the rank by giving the performance indicators to the model. The paper focuses on the use of Random Forest Regressor based Machine learning technique to predict NIRF rank. Factors considered are Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR) score, Research and Professional Practice (RPC) score, Graduation Outcome (GO) score, Outreach and Inclusivity (OI) score and Perception Score for particular college. The model is evaluated using standard strategic indicator: Root Mean Square Error. The low value of this indicator show that the model is efficient in predicting NIRF rank. We got score of 93% and RMSE of 15.47. We have completed ML model save and load operations using Joblib. We have created a flask server for model deployment and deployed on Render as web service. We conducted comprehensive evaluations on frequently used machine learning models and conclude that our proposed solution outperforms due to the comprehensive feature engineering that we built. The system achieves overall high accuracy for College NIRF rank prediction.

Educational institutions selection using Analytic Hierarchy Process based on National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) criteria

Educational institutions selection using Analytic Hierarchy Process based on National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) criteria

Funding and University Performance: An Econometric Analysis of the Indian Public Universities

Underpinning the aim of India’s National Education Policy, 2020 to devise a performance-based funding mechanism, it is pertinent to examine the impact of existing financial support on the university’s performance. Using a fixed panel data analysis, the present study investigates the influence of funding on the performance of Indian public universities over the period 2016-2020. The funding is considered in terms of the plan and non-plan grants received by universities from the central government, while performance is measured using performance parameters given by National Institutional Ranking Framework, 2021. Controlling the age, size and ownership type of university, findings reveal a significantly positive impact of funding on teaching performance, research performance and graduation outcomes of government-owned universities. Surprisingly, university’s outreach, inclusivity and peer perception have been observed to be indifferent towards central grants. Overall, the study provides valuable insights to university practitioners and policymakers for future development of the performance-funding mechanism.

EWS Quota: A Policy Against Evidence

Are economically weaker sections (EWS) students from the general category, who are not disadvantaged socially and educationally, underrepresented in higher education institutions in India? We examine this question by analysing a novel database of educational institutions in India, which were ranked in 2019 and 2022. The share of EWS students remains well above 10 per cent in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF)-ranked higher education institutions both before and after the implementation of EWS quota. Analysis of the panel data of the same institutions ranked in both 2019 and 2022 as well as the Periodic Labour Force Survey data 2019 confirms the above finding. The evidence, thus, is at odds with the justification of the EWS reservation policy.

Top 100 Ranked Indian Institutions by NIRF 2021 in Engineering: An Interesting Analysis of Individual/Combined Metrics

This paper analyses scores of the top 100 institutions ranked by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF- 2021), Ministry of Education, Government of India in the Engineering category. It considered all five major parameters: Teaching, Learning & Resources, Research and Professional Practice, Graduation Outcome, Outreach and Inclusivity and Perception. Albeit the methodology has been publicly available, the participating institutions could not verify their scores for the ten sub-parameters (metric/combined metric) out of 17 even after the announcement of rankings every year. Of the ten, perception is one such parameter that carries 10% weight. The NIRF defines the functions for nine sub-parameters based on the data submitted by the participating institutions. Having done the extensive analysis in this work, it is found that there are quite a few cases where the function, representing the relationship between the data and score, is neither monotonically increasing nor decreasing. Hence, this paper compares the percentage change in average scores of the top 10, 25, 50 and 100, and bottom 10 and 50 ranked institutions on various parameters/sub-parameters to the extent possible and, in a few cases, reveals the nonlinear-multimodal function correlating the data and the scores. Finally, this work concludes with a few recommendations for the institutions to perform well in NIRF rankings in future and provides suggestions to NIRF to rank the institutions based on their size, years of existence and funding support by the government. Keywords — Engineering Education, Rankings, Quality Education, Ranking Parameters

Returns on library investment: seeking causative relationship between the library investment and the institutional research output

PurposeThis study aims to seek the causative relationship between the library budget and research output with the ranking of 20 leading medial institutes in India. More so, the study also attempts to find out whether the libraries associated with academic and research institutes in general and medical institutes in particular have turned redundant or irrelevant, or have become more relevant in the changing times by embracing technology in its every new form.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on the secondary data retrieved from the official website of the Ministry of Education, Government of India and research output against each institution under study has been retrieved from Scopus. The study is limited to Indian medical institutions that participated in the 2019 National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), conducted by the Ministry of Education, India each year. The findings of the study can be generalized to all the medical institutions of the country.FindingsOn average, INR 160.90m were spent by each medical institute on the procurement of library resources at an average of INR 0.104m on procurement of resources against each individual published research article. Of the total research articles published by medical institutes under study, 26.39% of research articles were published by researchers from AIIMS, New Delhi, alone.Research limitations/implicationsFinancial aid or funding is very vital for the survival, sustenance and excellence of research institutions, and this funding becomes more important when the investigation is aimed toward the furtherance of medical advances. Any medical advancement is hell-bent to influence the overall welfare and betterment of society at large, whereby the benefit of any investment made in medical science is bound to be reaped by one and all alike.Originality/valueIn India, a good number of studies have been undertaken on the NIRF data to dive deeper to assess the role and importance of libraries in the overall ranking of institutions like universities, management institutes, engineering and technology institutes, but no major study has been so far conducted covering leading medical institutes in India. The study is the original and first of its kind undertaken in India.

Doctoral research in education: a comparative study on Indian and international trends

PurposeIt is unfortunate yet true that in India, research starts and ends with a Ph.D. The steady decline in the quality of doctoral research has been an articulated concern among Indian academics at a time when research and innovation should be a priority. One of the feasible ways of resurrecting or reconstructing Indian research is to open up to examine contemporary international trends. Against this backdrop, the study aimed to make a comparative analysis of doctoral research in education in top-ranking international and top-ranking Indian universities.Design/methodology/approachAdopting a comparative education methodology, this paper examines 100 doctoral dissertations from the top 10 international universities as per Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking and 100 doctoral theses from the top 10 Indian universities following National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) submitted in the past decade. Four significant issues were investigated during the comparison – topic, procedure, presentation, and dissemination – based on the premeditated Research Quality Relevance Metrics (RQRM) designed by the authors for quality improvement of research.FindingsFindings revealed stark differences between two trends in all four domains. The top international universities focus on the contemporariness scattered across diverse issues while Indian studies continue to engage on a few archetypal conventional issues with dreary reiterations. The newness of thought is rare in Indian research, while the interdisciplinary mixing of methods and practices had been the hallmark of its international comportment. Practice orientation has been a unique research attribute found in the top 10 international universities. The methods applied have attempted to reduce the age-old gap between educational research and practice. Methodological innovativeness, structural orientation, readability, and dissemination of research were also exemplary in those international theses, whereas Indian theses are still reeling under orthodox surveys with hesitant reporting.Research limitations/implicationsThis study put an exclusive mirror in front of Indian doctoral research on its current state in respect of international standards. At the same time, it upholds a framework to promote research quality and impact. Dimensions of research quality relevance matrices and recommendations for effective doctoral research are two vibrant contributions to the intelligentsia in general for bringing Indian research out of its cocoon to make it internationally comparable.Originality/valueIt reports a study conducted by the researchers and the write-up is based on the empirical findings only.

Assessing Open Access Friendliness of National Institutes of Technology (NITs) A Data Carpentry Approach

This research study aims to measure the Open Access (OA) friendliness of National Institutes of Technology (NITs) of India that are listed in the overall category of NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework), 2021 by taking into consideration four important OA parameters – i) OA publication share; ii) OA licensing scenario; iii) citation impact of OA publications; and iv) altmetric scores of OA publications. It deals with 64,485 publications of the selected 11 NITs during the period from 2012 to 2021 (10 years), citations received by these publications (5,42,638 citations), and altmetric attention scores of the documents (5,213 publications) during the period under study. A data carpentry tool, namely OpenRefine, and open access bibliographic/citation data sources such as Unpaywall, Dimensions, and Altmetric.com have been deployed to accomplish this large-scale study for ranking NITs by their Open Access Friendliness (OAF). The OAF indicator, as applied in this study, is a distributed weightage based 100-point scale built on top of the aforesaid OA parameters. The ranking framework shows that Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat (est. in 1961) has achieved the top position with a score of 52.12 (out of 100), but in totality only 3 NITs (out of the selected 11 NITs) crossed the 50 per cent mark in the adapted OAF scale.

Measuring the open access friendliness of the state universities in India through data carpentry

The present research aims to investigate the open access (OA) friendliness of the twenty-six (26) state universities that have been ranked in the National Institutional Ranking Framework’s (2021) ‘Overall Category’ (Rank Band 1: Top 100). The open-access ranking framework, as designed, is based on four major OA areas: i) proportion of OA publications by a given state university; ii) use of a license in sharing OA publications; iii) citations received by OA publications; and iv) popularity of OA publications in socio-academic web-space as indicated by altmetric attention scores.Ten years(2012–2021) primary publication data for the 26 state universities from Scopus was collected. We analyzed a total of 1,57,971 publications; 1,60,723 citations received by these publications; and altmetric attention scores received by 26,996 publications from these 26 state universities listed in the NIRF 2021 overall category. It applies an open-source data wrangling tool (OpenRefine) and a number of ODbL-based (Open Database License) data sources to gather the necessary data elements required for this large-scale study. The study finds that almost 98% of the state universities enlisted in the top 100 overall category passed the 50 marks on a 100-point scale, and the newly established state universities’ open access friendliness is greater than the older ones. The final open access friendliness ranking places King Georges Medical University at the top, with leading scores in areas I (share of OA publications) and III (OA citation share), while Panjab University has the highest value in Area II (use of license in OA publications) and Delhi Technological University has the highest value in Area IV (OA altmetric attention score).

National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF): Analyzing Performance of Top 50 Management Schools

The present study aims to examine the statistical differences in performance across different categories of management schools in India against the five major NIRF performance parameter heads viz., Teaching, Learning & Resources (TLR); Research and Professional Practices (RP); Graduation Outcomes (GO); Outreach and Inclusivity (OI); Peer Perception (PR); and Total Ranking Score (TRS). NIRF announced first ranking results in the year 2016 on the data of 2014-15. We have used the available NIRF ranking results of the top 50 ranked management schools for each of the six announcing years from 2016 to 2021. The study divided management schools into four categories as per their regulatory identity in India. Based on the relative performance and standing of four categories of management schools across five parameters of NIRF, the schools can strategize their efforts to retain and enhance their performance for achieving a higher NIRF ranking in the future. The findings are also pertinent to those management schools which are not ranked by NIRF for taking actionable decisions. This study claims its uniqueness as assessing the relative performance of institutions in the higher education sector in India. The theoretical underpinning of rankings can be a relevant addition to the existing literature of ranking systems for higher educational institutions.

Research productivity and altmetrics of NIRF top ranked medical institutions

This research aims to identify the state-wise list of active medical institutions in India that participated in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking (2019-21). A total of 52 institutions were ranked during the three years. However, only 28 of them have remained in the NIRF rankings for all three years. The research performance of these 28 institutions was examined based on their publications indexed in Scopus, Pubmed, and ResearchGate (RG). In addition, the membership registration details, altmetric such as reads, and RG scores were retrieved from ResearchGate. Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was employed in the retrieved data to identify the growth rate. All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi is in the top position based on NIRF as well as ResearchGate Scores. SRM Institute of Science and Technology tops in NIRF score growth rate (6.50%) and Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences is leading in ResearchGate score growth rate (55.41%). Kasturba Medical College, (Manipal and Mangaluru) and St. John's Medical College do not have contributions in ResearchGate. The overall publication growth rate of these 28 institutions put together is high for PubMed (13.08%) followed by Scopus (10.06%) and ResearchGate (8.77%). The study recommends that the institutions may encourage their faculty members to make their published research works available in ResearchGate to in order to boost the institution’s visibility.

Measuring Open Access Friendliness of Indian Central Universities through Data Carpentry

Indian central universities against some open access indicators based on 100 points scale. It applies a data carpentry tool namely Open Refine to measure the open access friendliness of Indian universities. This ranking framework consists of two primary areas viz. OA publications share and OA license share, including five factors (OA share, Gold and Green OA share, Repository share, OA license share and Gold & Green license share). The present study has analysed a total of 85916 publications of ten central universities that are listed in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), 2021 covering 28.43% of publications under four OA routes (Gold OA, Green OA, Hybrid OA and Bronze OA). The study has proposed an OAFI ranking framework for measuring the web presence of said universities. It is found that Visva Bharati University ranks 1st scoring 64.04 (out of 100) points and Tezpur University has scored the lowest points i.e., 48.75 (out of 100).

Performance-based evaluation and funding model for central universities in India: a preliminary assessment

The newly adopted performance-based evaluation and funding model is one of the recent quality initiatives taken by the University Grants Commission in India, which aims to improve quality in management and administration of federally funded universities in India. The article critically analyses the 2020 released ranking based on this model and raises some critical observations about the methodology and results of the ranking, discussing the key features of the ranking framework. The findings suggest that universities ranked higher in the National Institutional Ranking Framework and National Assessment and Accreditation Council ratings have performed not at par with their ranks in this target-based methodology. Only one university of 40 could find a place in the ‘outstanding’ category and one university was categorised as ‘poor’. The article goes on to discuss the current state and future directions of central universities in India aspiring to join the ‘world-class’ league.

Entry-level job pursuit intention: assessing person-environment fit in India

PurposePerson-environment (PE) fit theory suggests that value congruence (fit) leads to the job pursuits intention (Cable and Judge, 1996) which is also influenced by cultural norms (Ma and Allen, 2009). Due to stringent job market condition along with its people, as a part of collectivistic culture, having poor self-concept consistency, value congruence may unfold different phenomenon in Indian context. Therefore, the present study intends to explore the existing fit theory on different cultural norms and different job market condition with entry-level job pursuits as participants.Design/methodology/approachThe fit was measured both objectively and subjectively in a mixed method research design. Top 100 institutes ranked in NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) (under Management category) were approached for data collection and 41 institutes agreed to participate. Data were collected in four phases from 2,714 entry-level job pursuits and domain experts based on web-based job advertisements. Krippendorff's alpha was calculated for measuring objective fit, and the subjective fit was measured through quadratic structural equation modeling with response surface analysis.FindingsFindings revealed lack of value congruence objectively; and no influencing role of subjective fit in job pursuits intention. This indicated that neither Indian employers nor entry-level job pursuits were concerned about value congruence. The post-hoc analysis suggested that poor self-concept consistency as a cultural norm led to such atypical findings.Originality/valueThe present study suggests that fit may lead to different phenomena of entry-level job pursuits intention with different contextual and cultural norms.