Institutions of Eminence

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has released a list of 20 institutes, 10 public and 10 private which are recommended for Institutions of Eminence (IoE) status.

Making India Global Leader in Education

The Institute of Eminence scheme is aimed at developing 20 world-class institutions which would put India on the global education map. Those selected will be given greater autonomy and freedom to decide fees, course durations and governance structures.

The public institutions will also receive a government grant of Rs 1,000 crore, while the private institutions will not get any funding under the scheme.

For declaring the institutions of eminence the government considered the universities in three categories Public, private and greenfield. Greenfield institutions are once which are yet to be established and which are sponsored by organisations with a net worth of Rs 5,000 crores collectively.

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. Only after exhausting the above criterion, if any slot remains vacant, consideration shall be given to ‘yet to be established (Greenfield)’ proposals.

Objectives of the Institution of Eminence

• 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 and award degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions;
• To engage in areas of specialization to make distinctive contributions to the objectives of the university education system wherein the academic engagement is clearly distinguishable from programmes of an ordinary nature and is tuned to developing the capacity of the students and the researchers to compete in the global tertiary education marketplace through the acquisition and creation of advanced knowledge in those areas;
• To provide for high-quality teaching and research and for the advancement of knowledge and its dissemination through various research programmes undertaken in-house by a substantial number of full-time faculty and research scholars in diverse disciplines;
• To pay special attention to teaching and research in unique and emerging areas of knowledge, including interdisciplinary areas, which are regarded as important for strategic needs of the country but are not being pursued by conventional or existing institutions so far, and award degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions.
• To aim to be rated internationally for its teaching and research as a top hundred Institution in the world over time.

The government had earlier formed a panel under N. Gopalaswami, former Chief Election Commissioner to recommend the names to be considered for the Institutions of Eminence. The panel had recommended more than 30 institutions. Since the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s decision to limit the scheme to the original 20 institutions, the UGC was asked the asked to prune the list.