Navaratna varsities to get full autonomy
Move to improve academic standard
Concerned over the lack of research initiatives and academic prowess displayed by Indian universities, the Centre has decided to go an extra mile with regard to the Navaratna Universities by giving them complete autonomy.
Projected as India’s answer to the Ivy League, the Navaratna Universities would be marketed as institutes of excellence and will be free to set up campuses in foreign shores.
The proposal was first mooted by Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal at a recent meeting of the Vice-Chancellors of 40 Central universities.
The minister had asserted that setting up Navaratna Universities would improve the overall academic standard as the existing 504 universities would pull out all stops to attain that standard.
At present, the growth in the number of doctorates in India is a mere 20 per cent compared to 85 per cent in China. Not more than one per cent of students, who complete their undergraduate degree, opt for doctoral studies in India.
But the government is set to change the numbers by granting the prestigious tag to any existing university which could show excellence in research, academic performance and could attract foreign students.
The concerned university would have to get good ranking by international agencies and a substantial number of patents to their credit.
The Navaratna Universities need not necessarily be nine in number.
Getting Navaratna status would not only ensure financial and academic autonomy for the universities, they would also be provided with special grants for research purposes. They could recruit faculty, set standards for curriculum and evaluation and could go for foreign projects and collaborative ventures for independent resource generation.
“The universities would be primarily research bodies and would be given freedom to take up research projects with foreign universities or research bodies,” an HRD official told Deccan Herald.
Appointing a committee under the V-C of the Hyderabad University S E Hasnain to work out a complete proposal on such universities, Sibal said the process would be started immediately after the committee submits their report.
The committee has been given two months to deliberate on the issue and come out with benchmarks for such universities matching international universities.
At present, only a handful of Indian institutions like the IIT-Powai feature in the top 200 list of international institutions.
The Ivy League refers to about eight institutions in USA which are widely associated with academic excellence, selectivity in admissions and social elitism. The institutes include Columbia University, Harvard University, Princeton University and Yale University.
While Germany has nine universities as Universities of Excellence, China has a similar group of 11 institutions and Australia is represented in the ranking with the country’s top eight universities.
