Azim Premji varsity, IIHS recommended for IoE tag

An empowered committee of experts has recommended that Azim Premji University and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) in Karnataka be granted the Institute of Eminence (IoE) tag.

In its second report to the government on Friday, the high-powered panel has recommended that the IoE tag be given to a total of 19 higher educational institutions—15 private institution and 7 public funded.

The private institutes include Shiv Nadar University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh; Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore; VIT, Vellore, Tamil Nadu; Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi; Ashoka University, Sonepat, Haryana; Krea University, Sri City, Andhra Pradesh.

Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bubaneshwar, Odisha; O P Jindal Global University, Haryana; Institute of Public Health Sciences, Telangana; and Satya Bharti University, Haryana are also in the list of private institutions recommended for the grant of IoE tag.

The public funded institutions are the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh; Tezpur University, Assam; Savithribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Maharashtra; University of Hyderabad, Telangana; Aligarh Muslim University, Uttar Pradesh; Panjab University, Chandigarh; and the Andhra University, Vishakapatnam.

“The recommendation of the committee is under consideration of the government,” official sources in the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry said.

The institutions will enjoy a complete autonomy in their functioning after grant of the IoE tag.

Last year, the Union government came up a with a scheme to grant IoE status to 10 higher educational institutions in public sector and another 10 in private sector to enable them become “world class institutions” in ten years and figure in the top 500 world university list released every year by reputed international rating agencies like Times Higher Education and the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).

Under the scheme, the HRD ministry has so far issued letters of intent for grant of IoE status to five higher educational institutions— Indian Institute of Science (IISc); Manipal Academy, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),Delhi; IIT-Bombay, BITS Pilani and the yet-to-be Reliance Foundation 'Jio Institute— on the recommendation.

The empowered expert committee was set up by the appointments committee of the cabinet (ACC), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to select the institutions which can be given the IoE status.