The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has issued a Letter of Intent (LoI) for ‘Institution of Eminence’ (IoE) tag to the KIIT University, informed KIIT and KISS founder Dr Achyuta Samanta at a Press meet held here on Saturday.
Dr Samanta said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken an initiative to develop some prominent Indian higher education institutions into world-class institutes. So, the Central Government constituted an Empowered Expert Committee (EEC) under the chairmanship of former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) N Gopalaswami and five other members, he informed.
Many reputed institutions of India had applied and taken part in the process for IoE status. The expert committee selected 10 public and 10 private institutions based on their presentation and recommended to the University Grants Commission (UGC). Only three public and three private institutes were conferred IoE in the first phase.
Later, it was examined by the UGC and the Expert Committee and finally five institutes each from public and private sectors were selected for the IoE tag.
Dr Samanta said that among these five private institutes, the KIIT University is the only one from Odisha to get the IoE status; and the HRD Ministry issued an Lol to the KIIT on August 2. The most important thing is that the KIIT University is the youngest one in India to get the prestigious tag, he said.
He said the KIIT, just a 22-year-old institution for professional education and 15-year-old as a university, has secured an impressive position in various global university rankings. The KIIT has been giving importance to quality education, research and development since its inception. It is a matter of pride not only for students, staffs, faculties and guardians of the university but also for Odisha, he said.
The founder also thanked and expressed his gratitude to the Prime Minister for his vision to promote education and his blessings to the KIIT.
“KIIT has been getting blessings and support of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik since 1997. It has got this rare achievement due to his blessings and support, for which the KIIT family would always remain obliged to him”, he stated. He also thanked HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank for the same.
Among others, university Vice-Chancellor Prof Hrusikesh Mohanty and Registrar Prof Sasmitarani Samanta were present.