IoE: Know how MHRD selected 6 institutions including ‘Jio Institute’ for complete autonomy

NEW DELHI, JULY 10: Since the Government has announced names of top six institutions selected for the ‘Institutions of Eminence’ (IoE) status, the academic circles and social media platforms are abuzz with the inclusion of one name in the list - “Jio Institute”. The Jio Institute which is yet to be established by Reliance Foundation, has been selected among the three private institutions with the two others being renowned institutions - Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) and BITS Pilani.

Government clarification on Jio

The MHRD has issued clarification over the tag of IoE for Jio Institute which doesn’t even has a website of its own now. As per the Ministry it received 11 application under the Greenfield category. However, only Jio Institute was eligible under all the four parameters that included availability of land for construction of the institution; putting in place a core team with very high qualification and wide experience; making available funding for setting up the institution and a strategic plan with clear annual milestones and action plan.

Based on the recommendation of the EEC, Jio was selected. The Ministry will soon issue a Letter of Intent (LoI), based on that Reliance foundation will have to establish the Institute within three years. The status of the institute will be reviewed again after the three years.

One of the member of the EEC on condition of anonymity, speaking about the ongoing controversy over inclusion of Jio, said that a dozen proposal under the Greenfield category were received and it was only Jio proposal which we found fit for the IoE tag. “There were four parameters and Jio fulfilled all of the as per their application,” the committee member said.

The Ministry has also said that two other institutions under the Greenfield category will be ‘considered separately’. They are IIHS Bangalore and IIPH Gandhinagar.

What are 'Institutions of Eminence'?

India has over 900 Universities, more than 40,000 colleges, and nearly 13,000 stand-alone institutions offering Diploma programmes in various technical streams. Despite having one of the largest higher education systems in the world, none of the Indian institutions have been able to make a mark at the global stage (read international rankings). This has been a matter of concern for government as well as educators with former President, senior level academics and policymakers raiding the issue repeatedly on different public forums over last two decades now. Driven by the concern, government of India had proposed the ‘Institutions of Eminence’ tag for around 20 institutions. It was decided that the selected institution will be given complete autonomy in running academic programmes, hiring faculty and collaborating with other institutions, to secure their place in top 500 institutions globally.

Last year, the Government of India in order to facilitate this process announced to establish twenty ‘Institutions of Eminence’ to achieve world-class status, from amongst the existing Government/private institutions and ‘new institutions’ from the private sector.

The selected institutions, which are only 6 (3 each from private and public sector) as against the initial target of 20, will have complete autonomy as they will be out of the purview of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Institution (AICTE).

The autonomy to these institutions also mean that they can devise their own curriculum, hire and admit foreign faculty and foreign students (to a certain limit), determine their own fees structure and have the freedom to forge academic and research collaboration with foreign universities.

Now, the Committee will be entrusted to continue with the selection process and suggest 14 more names (7 each from public and private sector) for IoE.

Different categories to qualify for the IoE status

The IoE application from private institutions were invited in two categories - Greenfield Category and Brownfield Category. While the first category was for yet-to-be-established institutions, the other was for the existing ones in private domain.

More than 100 Applicants

The Government received an overwhelming response with a total of 114 applications (74 from public sector & 40 from private sector) under three categories. The applications from public sector included 10 Central Universities, 25 State Universities, 6 Deemed to be Universities, 20 Institutions of National Importance and 6 Stand-alone Institutions. Under the Private Sector, 9 Private Universities and 16 Deemed to be Universities applied in Brownfield Category and 11 Institutions applied in Greenfield Category.

The majority of the Greenfield category applicants were the philanthropic arms of top corporate houses including that of Reliance Foundation, headed by RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani’s wife Nita Ambani and Bharti Foundation, headed by telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal. The applicants in greenfield category had submitted their vision documents explaining their plan to establish universities and their plans to achieve global standards in a given time-frame.

The other institutions that applied under the same category included the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bangalore, Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar.

The Final Selection

The UGC, in February, constituted a four-member Empowered Expert Committee (EEC) which was entrusted with the task to conduct a thorough review of applications and make recommendations for shortlisting of 20 Institutions of Eminence (IoE) by April. The committee headed by former chief election commissioner of India N Gopalaswami had members from top academicians from around the world including Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemman, Professor at Harvard Business School; Pritam Singh, former director of IIM, Lucknow, and MDI, Gurugram; and Renu Khator, chancellor, University of Houston System.

The committee, however, could find only 6 institutions worthy for inclusion in this scheme offering them freedom to choose their own path to become world-class institutions.

The selection was made through challenge method mode by the Committee and the selected 20 institutions shall be named as “Institutions of Eminence” which will the freedom to choose their own path to become world-class institutions.

N Gopalaswami, the Chairman of the EEC had opined that most of universities and institutes have focussed on teaching and they were found wanting in terms of research. Since, research is a strong component and parameter for global rankings, the number of selected institutions were less than the initial target. Talking about the private universities, he said that while some of the public institutions which have been set up long back had invested in research over the years, the private institutes in India are relatively younger and have mostly come up in the last two tow to three decades and hence they have focussed more on teaching. That is why they have a lower chance of going up high on academic rankings in a ten-year span.