INSTITUTION OF EMINENCE

INSTITUTION OF EMINENCE

Subject : Government Schemes

Context : The University Grants Commission (UGC) has amended its regulations, allowing Institutions of Eminence (IoEs) to set up campuses abroad after receiving no objection certificates from the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs.

Concept :

• The amendments also permit the IOEs to start new off campus centres, with a maximum of three in five years and not more than one in an academic year.
• The Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities shall ensure that the norms and standards of the off shore campus shall be the same as that maintained on the main campus for similar courses, and the off-shore campus shall also follow similar admission criteria, curriculum, examination system and evaluation system.
• The IOEs have also been permitted to start an off campus centre on an interim campus “subject to the condition that the permanent campus shall be ready within a reasonable time period of not exceeding five years.”

Institution of Eminence scheme

• The institutes of eminence scheme under the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry aims to project Indian institutes to global recognition.
• The selected institutes will enjoy complete academic and administrative autonomy.
• The selection shall be made through challenge method mode by the Empowered Expert Committee constituted for the purpose.
• Grant: The public institutions under IOE tag will receive a government grant of 1,000 crore, while the private institutions will not get any funding under the scheme.

Criteria

• Global/National Ranking: Only those institutions which have appeared in any of the global/national ranks shall be recommended for the IoE status.
• Public institutions are assessed on the basis of QS-2020 world rankings, in case of a tie QS- 2019 rankings are used.
• Private institutions are assessed on the basis of their ranking in the QS India or National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF), the NIRF ranking being used as a tie-breaker.
• Any institution that did not appear in any rankings (QS-2019, QS-2020 and NIRF) is excluded completely from the list of IOE tag.
• Greenfield Proposals: Only after exhausting the above criterion, if any slot remains vacant, consideration shall be given to yet to be established (Greenfield) proposals.
• The term greenfield project generally refers to the initiation of a project without the need to consider any prior work.
• The Greenfield Institutions would get 3 year period to establish and operationalise the institution, and thereafter, EEC will consider giving IoE status to such institutions.
• Satya Bharti Foundation (telecom major Airtel’s philanthropic arm) became the second greenfield institution to be given IoE status, after Reliance’s Jio Institute.