Institution of Eminence Scheme

• 30 Oct 2020

Why in News

Recently, the OP Jindal Global University officially got an ‘Institution of Eminence (IoE) tag.

• The university was selected by the UGC, along with 13 other higher education institutions, for IoE status in 2019. However, for official confirmation, the institution had to fulfil certain legislative and procedural requirements.

Key Points

• Background:
  
  • Earlier in 2018, the Empowered Expert Committee (EEC) chaired by former Chief Election Commissioner, N. Gopalasamy recommended a list of institutions for the consideration of the IoE status.
  • Under this, the government aims to establish 20 world class institutes in the country to provide support and prepare them to become world-class institutions and the ultimate aim is to make them secure top global rankings.
• Objectives:
  
  • Excellence and Innovation: To provide for higher education leading to excellence and innovations in such branches of knowledge as may be deemed fit at post-graduate, graduate and research degree levels.
  • Specialization: To engage in areas of specialization to make distinctive contributions to the objectives of the university education system.
  • Global Rating: To aim to be rated internationally for its teaching and research as a top hundred Institution in the world over time.
  • Quality teaching and Research: To provide for high quality teaching and research and for the advancement of knowledge and its dissemination
• Criteria:
  
  • Global/National Ranking:
    
    • To get the status, the institutions should be among:
      
      • Top 50 in the National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF).
      • Top 500 in internationally recognised rankings.
    • Public Institutes that are eligible to apply under Institutes of Eminence are as follows:
      
      • Central Universities
      • Government-owned and controlled Deemed to be Universities.
      • Institutions of National importance such as IITs, NITs, etc.
      • State Universities are set up under a law made by the Legislative Assembly of a State.
    • Private institutions are assessed on the basis of their ranking in the QS India or NIRF, the NIRF ranking being used as a tie-breaker.
      
      • Any institution that did not appear in any rankings is excluded completely from the list of IoE tag.
  • Greenfield Proposals: Only after exhausting the above criterion, if any slot remains vacant, consideration shall be given to yet to be established (Greenfield) proposals.
    
    • The term greenfield project generally refers to the initiation of a project without the need to consider any prior work.
    • The Greenfield Institutions get a 3 year period to establish and operationalise the institution.
    • Satya Bharti Foundation (telecom major Airtel’s philanthropic arm) became the second greenfield institution to be given IoE status, after Reliance’s Jio Institute.
• Benefits:
  
  • Autonomy: Institutes with IoE tag will be given greater autonomy and freedom to decide fees, course durations and governance structures.
  • Grant: The public institutions under IoE tag will receive a government grant of Rs. 1,000 crore, while the private institutions will not get any funding under the scheme.

Source: IE