The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Manipal Academy of Higher Education in Karnataka are now ‘Institutes of Eminence (IoE)’.
The Union government has awarded the two higher education institutions IoE tag, which sets them free from the regulatory mechanism of the government to enable them to avail almost complete autonomy in their functioning.
Apart from the two higher education institutions, the government also granted IoE status to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay, IIT-Delhi and BITS Pilani, Rajasthan.
Reliance Foundation’s ‘Jio Institute’ bagged the IoE tag under greenfield venture.
Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar announced the selection of these six institutions on Twitter on Monday.
A four-member empowered committee, set up under former chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami, selected the institutes after a rigorous scrutiny.
The decision gives “virtually full autonomy” and ensures that no student will be denied an opportunity of education “with various measures like scholarships, interest waiver and fee waiver”, Javadekar assured.
“Congratulations to @iiscbangalore, which has been our real pride. This inst has been ranked in world ranking. It has the scope to improve further. Though it is a public sector inst, it is being granted full autonomy to become really world class inst & find out new opportunities”, he tweeted, congratulating the other five institutions in series of tweets.
Javadekar was in Canada to attend the 17th World Sanskrit Conference’ in Vancouver, beginning Monday.
“The #InstituteofEminence are important for the country. We have 800 univ, but not a single university in top 100 or even 200 in the world ranking. Today’s decision will help achieve this. Improving ranking needs sustained planning, complete freedom & public institutes getting public funding,” Javadekar said in a series of tweets.
Over 100 higher education institutions including the University of Mysore, IISc, Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bengaluru, the National Institute of Technology-Surathkal and the JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research had applied from Karnataka for the grant of IoE tag.