Why Jadavpur & Anna University are no longer in running for ‘Institute of Eminence’ tag

Education ministry informed parliamentary panel that UGC has recommended against West Bengal’s JU, while Tamil Nadu government has withdrawn proposal for AU.

New Delhi August 13 dmanewsdesk : West Bengal’s Jadavpur University (JU) and Tamil Nadu’s Anna University (AU), which were shortlisted for Institute of Eminence (IOE) status in 2018, are likely not to be awarded the tag, ThePrint has learnt.

This is because the University Grants Commission (UGC) has recommended against considering JU, while the Tamil Nadu government took back the proposal for AU, the education ministry is said to have informed a parliamentary panel on education, women, children, youth and sports, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party’s Vivek Thakur.

The panel Monday tabled a report in Rajya Sabha on action taken by the central government on recommendations made in its earlier report on ‘Demands for Grants 2023-24 of the Department of Higher Education’. ThePrint has a copy of the report.

Under the Institutions of Eminence scheme, announced by the Centre in 2016, an empowered expert committee (EEC) was constituted by the UGC in 2018 to shortlist 20 institutions — 10 private and 10 public — for the IoE tag.

As part of the scheme, public institutions were to receive government funding of Rs 1,000 crore to improve academic quality and infrastructure, while private institutes were to be granted greater autonomy and freedom from government regulations.

State government-funded JU and AU were on the shortlist in 2018, but the central government put the decision to award them IOE status on hold.

The next year, in 2019, the education ministry stated in an official statement: “(The) state governments have been asked to indicate their commitment towards their contribution under the IoE scheme.”

The parliamentary panel’s report filed Monday stated that JU had initially submitted a proposal to the education ministry stating that it would need Rs. 3,299 crore over five years to match IoE criteria. Subsequently, the ministry sought financial commitment from the West Bengal government for its share of funds to JU, but the West Bengal government had not agreed to give the required funding for the IoE tag of JU.

For AU too, the education ministry had sought financial commitment from the state government for its share of funds under the scheme, but the Tamil Nadu government had refused to commit to the funding, claimed the report. Details of the fund requirement for AU are not mentioned in the panel’s report.

ThePrint has reached UGC chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar via WhatsApp messages with queries on the subject, but did not receive a response till the time of publication of this report. The article will be updated when a response is received.

State funds

According to the panel’s report tabled in the Rajya Sabha, the education ministry had informed the panel that JU “had initially submitted a proposal with [a] budget outlay of Rs. 3,299 crore under the scheme. Subsequently, the Ministry had sought financial commitment from the State Government of West Bengal for their share of funds since the scheme has a provision to fund up to Rs. 1,000 crore of the proposed outlay only and to ensure continuity of funds for implementation plans in case of any shortfall. However, the same was not agreed to by the concerned State Government”.

According to the report, the committee was also informed that the West Bengal government “revised the proposal, first to Rs. 1015 Crore and then again revised steeply downward to Rs 606 Crore with 25% of the amount to be generated by the university at its level”.

The report further added: “Noticing a significant decrease in the budget outlay, the matter was referred to the UGC and EEC to examine the proposal afresh and advice the Ministry in the matter. The Ministry has received the recommendation from the UGC and EEC to not consider the university for IoE status.”

In the case of AU too, the education ministry had sought financial commitment from the state government for its share of funds under the scheme, said the parliamentary panel report.

However, according to the panel’s report, the department of higher education said in its response: “The State Govt. had refused any financial commitment owing to its financial condition and informed that the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly had passed a bill, bifurcating the University into Anna Technological and Research University and Anna University. Also, a committee set up by the State Govt. had recommended that Anna University does not require IoE status.”

“Therefore, the State Government of Tamil Nadu has withdrawn the proposal submitted earlier to confer the status of IoE on the university,” it added.

The ‘Institutions of Eminence’ scheme was launched “to implement the commitment of the government to empower higher educational institutions and to help them become world-class teaching and research institutions”.

The term of the EEC constituted for the purpose ended in February 2021 and a new committee is required to be constituted for further implementation of the scheme.

Indian Institute of Science (Bengaluru), four Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi, Bombay, Madras and Kharagpur), University of Delhi, Banaras Hindu University and University of Hyderabad are the the public universities which have received the IoE tag so far, while among private universities the list includes Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (Pilani), Manipal Academy of Higher Education and OP Jindal Global University (Sonipat).

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)

Source: The Print