The government has taken a step forward in actualising these ‘Institutions of Eminence’
Words: Vandana Devi Images: Various Sources
Modi government has taken another step forward to build 20 world-class educational institutions called ‘Institutions of Eminence’ in India, by moving the proposal to the Union Cabinet for approval. This is India’s chance for its institutions to achieve Global recognition by freeing the best from UGC’s restrictive regulations and hence giving them an unprecedented level of institutional autonomy. The UGC regulations 2017 will override all other UGC regulations including the restrictive inspection regime, regulatory control over fee, curriculum etc.
These institutions have to achieve a place in the top 500 institutions in global rankings within 10 years of being declared as an ‘Institution of Eminence’ and will have a good mix of Indian and international faculty. They will have full freedom for deciding course structure, credit hours, syllabus and so on. Such institutions will have a teacher to student ratio of 1:20 to begin with and in 5 years a ratio of 1:10. They are free to select students through a merit based transparent admission process and upto 30% foreign students compared to the strength of domestic students, can be admitted.
10 of both, government as well as private institutions will be given this status. And the 20 institutes will be selected by an expert committee headed by the PM. The goal is for these institutions to eventually reach the top 100s in Global rankings and to change the face of the education sector in India, and most importantly to provide students with quality education.