Institutes of Eminence Scheme

Topics Covered:

1. Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Institutes of Eminence Scheme

What to study?

For Prelims: Institutes of Eminence Scheme- features and significance.

For mains: Why are few institutes unwilling to accept this tag?

Context: The decision to accept the Institute of Eminence (IOE) status for Delhi University has been deferred following protests from council members.

Why are they worried?

• The scheme would result in increased privatisation of the university.
• It would also be a huge burden on the university as it called for “world-class” infrastructure, provisions for foreign faculty with differential pay scales and removed caps on fee structures among other issues.

Institutions of Eminence scheme:

1. Implemented under the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry.
2. Aims to project Indian institutes to global recognition.
3. The selected institutes will enjoy complete academic and administrative autonomy.
4. They will receive special funding.
5. The selection shall be made through challenge method mode by the Empowered Expert Committee constituted for the purpose.
6. Eligibility: Only higher education institutions currently placed in the top 500 of global rankings or top 50 of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) are eligible to apply for the eminence tag.
7. The private Institutions of Eminence can also come up as greenfield ventures provided the sponsoring organisation submits a convincing perspective plan for 15 years.
8. Under the scheme, Public Institutions of Eminence are eligible for a grant of ₹1,000 crore from the government and no funds will be given to Private Institutions of Eminence.
9. The IoEs will enjoy complete academic and administrative freedom.

Other benefits include the freedom to:

1. to recruit faculty from outside India (limit of 25% of its faculty strength for public institution).
2. to enter into academic collaborations with other Institutions within the country.
3. to admit additionally foreign students on merit subject to a maximum of 30% of the strength of admitted domestic students.
4. to fix and charge fees from foreign students without restriction.
5. To fix curriculum and syllabus, with no UGC mandated curriculum structure.
6. to offer online courses as part of their programmes with a restriction that not more than 20% of the programme should be in online mode.
7. UGC Inspection shall not apply to Institutions of Eminence.

Can granting the Institute of Eminence status make a difference?

If IoEs want to be really competitive globally, they should internationalise higher education. It implies that these institutions should give importance to “enhanced international cooperation and capacity building”.

It is also important for the institutions to have constant exposure to international standards. Research and innovation should be the focus of such institutions and funds should be utilised for these purposes.

They should lead the way in all aspects including teaching, research and innovation and inspire other institutions of higher education.

Sources: the Hindu.