HRD grants 'Institutions of Eminence' status to six public and private institutes

The HRD Ministry today granted "Institutions of Eminence" status to three public and three private institutes, enabling them to get full autonomy and special incentives to project them as "world class universities".

While the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry will grant Rs 1,000 crore funds to the three public institutions in the next five years, the private institutes, however, will not be eligible for government funding.

The government granted "Institutions of Eminence" (IoEs) status to IIT-Delhi, IIT-Bombay and the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in the public sector, and Manipal Academy of Higher Education, BITS Pillani and Jio Institute by Reliance Foundation in the private sector.

The move is part of a scheme of the HRD Ministry to select 20 IoEs 10 public and 10 private that will enjoy complete academic and administrative autonomy.

However, the Empowered Expert Committee (EEC) headed by former chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami picked six institutions that, according to the panel, showed the potential to find a place among top 500 of global rankings.

Unlike other institutions, IoEs will get greater autonomy to start new courses, admit foreign students, hire foreign faculty, and collaborate with foreign educational institutions without the need for government approval.

"The #InstituteofEminence are important for the country. We have 800 univ, but not a single university in top 100 or even 200 in the world ranking. Today's decision will help achieve this. Improving ranking needs sustained planning, complete freedom & public institutes getting public funding (sic)," Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted.

"This decision is a landmark decision for following reasons -This was never thought off & tried; it is more than a graded autonomy, it is really a full autonomy to the institutes; the institutes can take their own decisions (sic)," he added.

The HRD Minister further stated, "While today's decision gives virtually full autonomy, it will also ensure that no student will be denied opportunity of education with various measures like scholarships, interest waiver, fee waiver and ensure all equity principles."