Two years after the controversy, the Reliance Industries-backed Jio Institute yet again figures in the list of Institute of Eminence categorised by the HRD Ministry. The decision was taken following a meeting of the University Grants Commission (UGC) where the report of the Empowered Expert Committee (EEC) was considered to tag 10 each institution in Government and private category.
The private institutions which have made it to the list for issuing of Letter of Intent include Amrita Vidyapeetham, VIT Vellore, Jamia Hamdard, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Shiv Nadar University and OP Jindal University. In the greenfield category (institutions which are yet to be established) Jio Institute and Bharti Institute of Satya Bharti foundation have been recommended,”said a senior HRD Ministry official.
The official said Greenfield institutions would get three-year period to establish and operationalise the institution, and thereafter, EEC will consider giving IoE status to such institutions. The move is part of a scheme of the HRD Ministry being from last two years to select 20 IoEs — 10 public and 10 private —that will enjoy complete academic and administrative autonomy.
UGC also recommended granting of Institution of Eminence (IoE) status to Delhi University, Hyderabad University, BHU and IIT Madras and Kharagpur. While the recommendation for Jadhavpur University in Kolkata and Anna University in Chennai has been subjected to consultation with the respective state governments, six others have been recommended for issue of Letter of Intent (LoI) for the eminence status. Among the universities that have failed to make it to the list of top 10 Government institutions are Aligarh Muslim University.
“The expert committed had shortlisted 15 public institutions and as many private institutions for eminence status. As the scheme has only provided for 10 institutions in each category, the UGC was of the opinion that since the thrust of the scheme is to prepare institutions for the global rankings, no existing institution which has not figured in any of the global or national rankings shall be recommended for the IoE status. Wherever there was a tie, UGC used the QS-2019 India Rankings as a tie-breaker,”said a HRD Ministry official.
Last year, the government had granted the IoE 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 and BITS Pilani in the private sector, while the Jio Institute by Reliance Foundation was given the tag in greenfield category.
While government will provide funding to public institutions with IoE tag, in case of the private institutions proposed as IoE, there will be no financial support, but they will be entitled for more autonomy as a special category Deemed University.