Govt nod to set up 20 world class educational institutes

In a major decision, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has given its green signal to the framework for establishing 20 world class institutes in the country. According to the sources, the selection of 20 such institutions—10 public and 10 private—would be finalised by next April.

The sources further said that the government would provide financial support of Rs 1,000 crore to every selected public institution for a period of five years, while private institutes would have to develop themselves as world class institutions on their own as the government would not extend any financial support to them.

According to sources, the selection of Institution of Eminence would be done through challenge method wherein their detailed proposals would be evaluated by an Empowered Expert Committee comprising of 3-5 persons of eminence, which would be constituted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) with the approval of Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC).

"The process of selection of Institution of Eminence would begin from this month with the formation of search and selection committee comprising of Cabinet Secretary, Higher Education Secretary and UGC chairman. The panel would select 3-5 persons of eminence to finalise the selection of 20 institutions," the sources said, adding that the empowered committee would invite the different public and private institutions to participate in the process for the selection of Institution of Eminence.

Notably, only those institutions ranked in the top-50 of National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) would be eligible for the participation in the selection process.

"All the selected 20 institutions would get full autonomy and they wouldn't have to take any approvals from the HRD, UGC or any other regulator. They would be free frame their own policies," the source said, adding, "The HRD Ministry is hopeful that 3-4 IITs, 2-3 IIMs, 1-2 IISER and 1-2 central universities would make up in the final list of 10 public institutions to be developed as Institution of Eminence." According to a senior HRD official, the government has approved the enabling regulatory architecture for setting up of 20 Institutions of Eminence to enable them to reach amongst top 500 of world institutions in 10 years and in top 100 eventually.

"The objective behind setting up of such Institution of Eminence is to allow Indian students to get the education of highest international standards in the country itself. The 20 world class institutes would act as a nucleus catalysing improvement in the quality of other educational institutions," the official said.