The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has granted the Institution of Eminence (IoE) status to six institutes of which, three are in the public sector and the remaining in the private sector. The public sector institutes include IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay and IISc Bangalore.
Academy of Higher Education, BITS Pilani and Jio Institute are the private sector institutes selected for the Institution of Eminence status. The University Grants Commission (UGC) received 103 applications including JNU and Delhi University for IoE status.
In one of its tweet regarding the decision on IoE status, the Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted, “The Institute of Eminence are important for the country. We have 800 universities, but not a single university in top 100 or even 200 in the world ranking. Today’s decision will help achieve this.”
In another tweet, the HRD Minister said, “While today’s decision gives virtually full autonomy, it will also ensure that no student will be denied opportunity of education with various measures like scholarships, interest waiver, fee waiver and ensure all equity principles”.
Under the Institute of Eminence, 10 private and 10 public universities are to be selected. The IoEs are proposed to have greater autonomy in comparison to other higher education institutions. The institutes will be free to decide their fee for domestic and foreign students and have a flexible course duration and structure. Moreover, their academic collaborations with foreign institutions will be exempt from approvals of Government or UGC except institutions based in MEA and MHA’s list of negative countries.
