24-Feb-2020: Union HRD Minister chairs a high level meeting to review progress of Institutions of Eminence (IoE) Scheme

Union Human Resource Development Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ chaired a high level meeting to review the progress of the Public and Private institutions which were considered to be given the status of Institutions of Eminence on the advice of UGC and the Empowered Expert Committee under the leadership of N. Gopalaswamy. Secretary, MHRD Shri Amit Khare and senior officials of the Ministry were also present in the meeting.

During the meeting, the HRD Minister said that all the institutions recognised under IoE Scheme are the foundation stones in making a New and better India and they have to lead the new generation towards excellence. He said that the focus of our government is to provide quality education to the students of the country, especially in the areas of research and innovation. The Minister added that these institutions have to work hard to improve their position in global rankings and to make these institutions, the centres of excellence at global level. The Minister also reviewed the status of infrastructure and human resource in these institutions and assured to extend maximum support to them by the Ministry for high quality teaching and research and for the advancement of knowledge.

Various decisions taken during the meeting to empower these institutions and to help them become world class teaching and research institutions are as follows:

• Institutions will invite Nobel laureates, academicians, professors, foreign faculty etc to visit Indian educational institutions to enlarge and deepen the interface of India’s institutions of higher learning and globally recognised institutions of academic eminence.
• All the balance amount for the year 2019-2020 and new amount/funds to be paid to these institutions may be paid in the current financial year.
• Entire architecture for giving access to Research Journals to be reviewed and open access may be provided to the institutions under IoE.
• One Project Monitoring Unit to be established to monitor the progress of these institutions and activities undertaken by them.
• These institutions may adopt and develop model villages as part of the Unnat Bharat scheme for sustainable development in rural India.

6-Sep-2019: HRD Ministry awards IoE tags

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has awarded Institute of Eminence (IoE) tag to five institutes, which are Delhi University (DU), Banaras Hindu University (BHU), University of Hyderabad, IIT-Madras and IIT-Kharagpur.

The decision was taken following a recommendation made by the University Grants Commission (UGC) last month on the advice of an Empowered Expert Committee.

These institutions will be required to submit their readiness for commencing academic operations as IoEs. The selection panel had also recommended names of Shiv Nadar University in Noida and OP Jindal University in Sonipat.

Letters have been issued to Haryana and UP government to pass a legislation in the state assembly to cease the status of these universities as private universities under the state and as to enable them to be considered as IoE deemed universities.

Similarly, governments of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu have been asked to indicate their commitment towards contribution to Jadavpur University and Anna University to enable them to have the IoE tag. They will be considered for issue of the IoE status only after the respective state governments have issued an official communication allocating their share of the funds up to 50 per cent.

Among the universities that failed to make a cut are Aligarh Muslim University, Ashoka University, Azim Premji University, Tezpur University, Punjab University, Andhra University and Indian Institute of Public Health in Gandhinagar.

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

2-Aug-2019: 20 Institutions recommended for status of ‘Institutions of Eminence’

The UGC, in its 542nd meeting held on 02nd August 2019 has considered the reports of the Empowered Expert Committee (EEC) appointed by Government under the Chairmanship of Shri N Gopalaswami recommending  (15) Public institutions and (15) Private institutions for considering to give status of Institutions of Eminence.

Since the scheme has only provided for (10) Public and (10) Private Institutions, the UGC has examined the list of (15) Public and (15) Private Institutions using transparent and verifiable criteria.

The following were the principles used for identifying the (10) Public and (10) Private Institutions, from the list of (15) Public and (15) Private Institutions recommended by the EEC:

1. 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/national ranks shall be recommended for the IoE status.
2. Only after exhausting the above criterion, if any slot remains vacant, consideration shall be given to 'yet to be established (Greenfield)' proposals.

Public Institutions: In accordance with the above principles, the UGC has ranked the list of (15) recommendations as per the QS-2020 World Rankings. Wherever there is a tie, used the QS-2019 India Rankings as a tie-breaker.

Accordingly, the following are recommended for grant of IoE status:

S No	Institution	World Rankings (QS 2020)	India Rankings (QS 2019)	Recommendation of UGC
1	IIT Bombay (INI)	152	1	Already declared IoE
2	IIT Delhi (INI)	182	4	Already declared IoE
3	IISC Bangalore (Deemed Univ)	184	2	Already declared IoE
4	IIT Madras (INI)	271	3	Recommended for declaring as IoE
5	IIT Kharagpur (INI)	281	5	Recommended for declaring as IoE
6	Delhi University (Central Univ)	474	8	Recommended for declaring as IoE
7	University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad (Central Univ)	601-650	7	Recommended for declaring as IoE
8	Jadavpur University, Kolkata (State Univ)	651-700	12	Needs consultation with State Govt. prior to consideration
9	Anna University, Chennai  (State Univ)	751-800	13	Needs consultation with State Govt. prior to consideration
10	BHU, Varanasi (Central Univ)	801-1000	15	Recommended for declaring as IoE
11	Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune (State Univ)	801-1000	19
12	AMU, Aligarh (Central Univ)	801-1000	33
13	Tezpur University (Central Univ)	Not ranked	36
14	Panjab University, Chandigarh (State/Central Univ)	Not ranked	49
15	Andhra University, Visakhapatnam  (State Univ)	Not ranked	46

The State Universities: Jadavpur University and Anna University can be considered for issue of the IoE status only after the respective State Governments have issued an official communication allocating their share of the funds (up to 50%).

Private Institutions: UGC has ranked the list of the (15) private institutions recommended by the EEC by taking their ranking in the QS India or NIRF rankings, and NIRF ranking has been used as tie-breaker. In case there is any vacant slot after considering all the ranked institutions, the same was used for 'yet to be set up (greenfield)' institution.

S No	Institute	India Rankings (QS 2019)	India Ranking NIRF			UGC recommendation
			2019	2018
1	BITS Pilani, Rajasthan	17	23	17		Already selected and given Letter of Intent
2	Manipal Academy of Higher Education	26	09	11		Already selected and given Letter of Intent
3	Jio Institute (Reliance Foundation, Maharashtra)	Green Field (yet to be established)				Already selected and given Letter of Intent
4	Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Bangalore	40	8		8	Recommended for issue of LoI
5	VIT Vellore, Tami Nadu	44	19		16	Recommended for issue of LoI
6	Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi	51-55	18		23	Recommended for issue of LoI
7	Kalinga Instt. of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar	61-65	31		42	Recommended for issue of LoI
8	O.P JINDAL University, Haryana	66-70	-		-	Recommended for issue of LoI
9	Shiv Nadar University, Uttar Pradesh	-	52		48	Recommended for issue of LoI
10	Bharti (Satya Bharti Foundation), Delhi	Greenfield (yet to be established)				Recommended for issue of LoI in the vacant slot
11	Azim Premji University, Bangalore	Not ranked, not considered
12	Ashoka University, Sonepat, Haryana	Not ranked, not considered
13	KREA University (IFMR), Chennai, Tamil Nadu	Not ranked, not considered
14	IIHS (Indian  Institute for Human Settlements), Bangalore	Not ranked, not considered
15	Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar	Not ranked, not considered

In case of the private institutions proposed as Institutions of Eminence, there will be no financial support, but they will be entitled for more autonomy as a special category Deemed University.

The Greenfield Institutions would get 3 year period to establish and operationalise the institution, and thereafter, EEC will consider giving IoE status to such institutions.