In a first of its kind move, the HRD Ministry has decided to allow meritorious students from Central Universities in North-East to study in elite institutes like IITs, IIMs and IISERs for a period of six months under a credit-based system.
President Pranab Mukherjee will meet IIT heads on Friday to discuss the issue threadbare besides a national framework on ranking of institutes. The move will enable students from North-East earn credit points from the IITs and IISERs while completing a part of their course there.Prime Minister Narendra Modi and HRD Minister Smriti Irani will be present at the conference.
The President has time and again regretted the absence of the IITs among the top institutions in the global ranking list. “The idea is also in keeping with the Prime Minister’s emphasis on creating a pool of students who are ready to drive the economy,” sources said. “Emphasis would also be laid on seeking IITs’ expertise in training teachers and streamlining the entire training programme,” HRD Ministry sources said.
The conference with the Chairmen, Board of Governors and Directors of IITs at Rashtrapati Bhawan would be the first such initiative by the President, who is the Visitor of these premier institutes.Giving impetus to research and innovation, use of technology in pedagogy and online learning, deepening of engagement of IITs with community and resource mobilisation as well as alumni participation will also be discussed.
Ahead of the conference, vice chancellors of central universities and IIT directors met on Thursday to draft a framework on ranking and evolve a consensus, HRD Ministry sources said.The North East is the focus for the HRD Ministry. HRD Minister Smriti Irani has asked the chief secretaries of other States also to identify institutions within their States where students from the N-E region could study and their security and safety aspects are taken care of.
Similarly, she also asked States to send their students on study tours to the N-E in a move to ensure connecting the N-E students to the mainstream and presenting opportunities to them beyond the metros and other developed cities.The HRD Ministry has also asked the CBSE to prepare a data of meritorious students in qualifying secondary examinations to enable the Ministry a separate data to help them in higher education. The need has been based on several reports where it has been found that many top scorers could not seek admission in Central universities and in their choice of course due to want of financial needs.
“Where the HRD Ministry cannot fund needy students, we would write to other Ministries like social welfare, tribal affairs, and minorities as the case may be,” said a HRD ministry official.