The HRD Ministry is considering an external peer review mechanism for the Central universities on certain agreed parameters just on the lines being followed at the IITs. HRD Minister Smriti Irani has asked the Ministry officials to explore the possibility of extending to central universities the practice of holding External Peer Review as done in the case of IITs.
“The External Peer Review is a mechanism under which a committee of experts from academia, research and industry, once every five years assesses the performance of an IIT on certain agreed parameters. The Ministry, after the suggestion from the Minister, is looking at the possibility of extending this practice to central universities,” HRD Ministry officials said.
There are over 40 central universities and it is possible that a team of officials from one could undertake a review of the other as per an agreed format. However, the format for such a review will be worked out.
Sources said that the University Grants Commission (UGC) may also be roped in for finalising details of the peer review process for universities. The system of External Peer Review, which is also followed by many world class institutions, was adopted by the IITs a few years ago following a decision by the IIT Council. The review committees for IITs consist of five eminent persons from the industry and the academia.
Earlier this month Irani had released the India Rankings 2016 and India’s first ranking of Universities made by National Institutional Ranking framework (NIRF).
While JNU and HCU were judged the third and fourth best universities, better than Delhi University, which stood at rank 6, AMU and Visva-Bharati were ranked 10th and 11th, respectively. Jamia Millia Islamia was ranked 83 out of 100 universities. IIT Madras, IIM Bangalore, IISc Bangalore and Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal, topped the engineering, management, university and pharmacy categories, respectively.