Policy on Establishment of World Class Institutions – MHRD

In the first week of October, 2016, the Ministry of HRD had released the draft Guidelines and Regulations for the establishment of world class institutions in India. These guidelines provide a regulatory architecture for Indian institutions to grow into a world class teaching and research institutions. While the draft Guidelines will be made applicable to all government owned and controlled institutions of higher education, the Regulations will be made applicable to the privately owned and controlled institutions of higher education. Both the Guidelines and Regulations overlap except for the financial arrangement. The government institutions will be financed from a fund of 5 crore rupees and the funding for the private institutions will be through an external sponsorship organization.

Objectives

The objectives of the Regulations and Guidelines are:

• To establish ten world class institutions (WCI) each in public and private sector in a reasonable time.
• To allow the world class institutions to achieve highest levels of global excellence in teaching and research.

Background

This scheme for creation of world class institutions was announced by the Finance Minister in the 2016-17 budget speech. Historically, India has been a world leader in higher learning. With the presence of universities like Nalanda and Takshashila, India was a major and foremost learning centre of the world. But at present, India does not have any representation among the top tier of global universities. It cannot figure in the list of top institutions of the world or for that matter even in Asia. This has prompted the government to come up with suitable guidelines for providing an enabling environment for the promotion and growth of globally renowned centres of excellence in India.

Key features

• The draft regulations and guidelines would give the institutions autonomy on academic, administrative and financial matters.
• Characteristics of world class institutions:
  • Reasonable mix of students from India and other foreign countries.
  • Promotion of multi-disciplinary learning
  • Admission process based on merit
  • Freedom to determine fee structure according to internal policies
  • Accreditation by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) or an alternative version which is in confirmation with the standards prescribed by the UGC.
  • Within first 10 years of establishment, consideration in the top 500 institutions as per any of the renowned world rankings.
• Empowered Experts Committee (EEC): EEC would be involved in scrutiny and appraisal of applications submitted by the universities to the MHRD to become world class institutions. EEC would also play an advisory role in addition to monitoring the implementation plans of the institutions.
• Review and penalties: The world class institutions would be subjected to review once in three year to check their adherence to the implementation plans. Also, the yearly progress made by the institutions would have to be submitted to the EEC. EEC would then recommend penalties to be applied to world class institutions in case of non-performance in case the institutions do not implement the plans.
• World class institutes can admit 30% foreign students and recruit up to 25% faculty from outside of the country. They can collaborate with global and national institutions. They will have autonomy to create new courses and inter-disciplinary ones.

Significance

• It will help in sustaining the quality of higher education in India.
• The guidelines and regulations comprehensively provide everything right from recruitment around the world to providing financial assistance to meritorious students.
• The guidelines will also give autonomy and greater funding to global institutes.

Way forward

At present, cutting edge research and teaching is not taking place in Indian universities. Universities are often troubled by petty internal politics. To make the universities world class, it is suggested that the academicians and the administrators have to shed their prejudices and give equal opportunities to the talented and young researchers to shine.

NITI Aayog’s suggestion to the MHRD

• The guidelines and rules should explicitly observe that the WCIs shall not be regulated by professional councils like AICTE, the Medical Council of India (MCI), the Dental Council of India as well as the Architecture Council of India. However, the MHRD feels that exempting WCIs from the regulation of professional councils would require amendments to be made in the acts governing 15 different councils.
• The ten government institutions to be qualified for world class status must have full freedom to determine pay and promotion norms for their faculty so that they can meaningfully compete with their private counterparts. However, MHRD feels that this suggestion would be discriminatory and may even lead to resentment of the faculty at other centrally funded institutions.

Hurdles

Until recently, the MHRD and the PMO had disagreements with the regulations over the degree of autonomy to be granted to the WCIs. Also, the Solicitor General of India has opined that it is not legally feasible to create a separate regulatory structure in the form of EEC to regulate the WCIs as it cannot function independent and autonomous of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Steps to establish WCIs

At present the regulations have been placed in the public domain for inviting suggestions. After which it shall be finalised and the approval of the government will be sought to the entire scheme including the financial commitment. After obtaining the approval, the guidelines will be notified and expression of interest shall be called for the selection of WCIs.