The exercise in creating a separate list of Eminent Institutions is geared towards promoting a special economic zone for Higher Education brands that may pursue commercial aims with impunity and without any public accountability, said Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA). The organisation was responding to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry decision to grant 'Institutes of Eminence' status to 6 institutions.
The government today granted "Institutions of Eminence" (IoEs) status to IIT-Delhi, IIT-Bombay and the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in the public sector, and Manipal Academy of Higher Education, BITS Pillani and Jio Institute by Reliance Foundation in the private sector. The Union Government had earlier approved the enabling regulatory architecture for setting up / upgrading of 10 public and 10 private Institutions of Eminence so as to enable them to reach amongst top 100 of world institutions ranking.
"The DUTA has consistently opposed the Government's obsession with Rankings as the Quality parameters used for ranking Higher Educational Institutions tend to ignore notions of Equity, Access and Public Accountability while emphasising on a narrow and arbitrary notion of Excellence," the teachers body said in a statement.
"These Eminent Institutions feature IITs wherein women's access is limited to 14% of the total students' strength. Obviously, diversity of students' profile and Equity is not a matter of concern, here," it added.
According to DUTA, the inclusion of clauses which allow paper proposals to qualify as an Eminent Institution is an academic corruption of highest order and added that "It is turning a government scheme as a promotion for a private player".
DUTA also criticized the way some private institutions have been selected as Institutes of Eminence.
The Government had received more than 100 applications for the grant of IoE status. Under Public Sector, 10 Central Universities, 25 State Universities, 6 Deemed to be Universities, 20 Institutions of National Importance and 6 Standalone Institutions had applied for the scheme. Under Private Sector, 9 Private Universities and 16 Deemed to be Universities have applied in brownfield category and 8 Institutions have applied in greenfield category.
Existing standalone institutions which are not universities or deemed-to-be-varsities were allowed to apply under Greenfield category for Institution of Eminence status to avail greater autonomy and get world class reputation.
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