Why Panjab University couldn’t make it to Institute of Eminence list of UGC

Amarjot Kaur
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 3

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Sharing the bad news. Panjab University (PU), Aligarh Muslim University, Azim Premji University, Ashoka University, KREA University, Indian Institute for Human Settlements and the Indian Institute of Public Health are among those varsities that haven’t made it to the list of UGC’s “Institute of Eminence” (IoE) on the grounds that they have not been placed in any global or national rankings.

In fact, OP Jindal University, a privately-run university at Sonipat in Haryana, is the only university from the region that has been recommended by the UGC.

The UGC, in its 542nd meeting held on Friday, considered the reports of an empowered expert committee (EEC) appointed by the government under the chairmanship of N Gopalaswami for selecting institutes that would be recommended for the status of IOE.

The expert committee recommended 15 public and 15 private institutions for the government to give the status of IoE. The government’s scheme, however, only provided for 10 public and 10 private institutions to get the status.

The UGC has ranked the list of the (15) private institutions recommended by the EEC by taking their rankings in the QS India or the NIRF into account. The NIRF ranking has been used as tie-breaker.

In case there was any vacant slot after considering all the ranked institutions, the same was used for ‘yet to be set up (greenfield)’ institutions.

The list has recommended the IoE status for Greenfield or ‘yet to be established’ institutes like Jio Institute (Reliance Foundation, Maharashtra) and Bharti (Satya Bharti Foundation), Delhi, which would get a three-year period to establish and operationalise. Thereafter, the EEC will consider giving IoE status to such institutions.

The main reason why the PU was struck off from the list was because it did not feature anywhere in the QS 2020 global university rankings that were released last month. It didn’t feature anywhere on the QS rankings 2019 either.

While the PU featured in the list of 15 public universities recommended by the committee, it lost out to be recommended for IoE status because it got 14th rank.

The UGC said: “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, will be recommended for the IoE status.”

A top official from PU, requesting anonymity, said, “Rather than considering the NIRF and the NAAC, which are government rankings, the authorities have considered the QS rankings, which is done by a private outfit. This is quite absurd.”

Financial assistance

Financial assistance would be provided to government institutions, which have been declared Institutions of Eminence. The assistance to each institution would be up to one thousand crore or 50% to 75% of the requirement projected in the perspective and detailed plans submitted by the institution concerned, whichever is less, in a span of five years starting from the financial year of declaration of institute as an IOE. The exact amount to be given and the exact percentage in the 50% to 75% bracket would depend on the perspective and detailed plan proposal of the institution, assessed and accepted by the empowered expert committee. The annual release would depend on the institution achieving financial and physical outcomes laid down in its implementation plan.