Govt needs to reconsider not funding private Institutions of Eminence: OP Jindal VC

The government needs to reconsider the idea of not granting funds to private institutions selected as Institutions of Eminence (IoE), said OP Jindal Global University Vice Chancellor C Raj Kumar on Monday. OP Jindal and Shiv Nadar universities were the private institutions recommended by a UGC expert committee for IoE status. The HRD Ministry then wrote to Haryana and UP governments to pass a legislation to cease their private status and enable them to be considered as IoE-deemed universities.

Ten public IoEs will get Rs 1,000 crore each from the HRD Ministry to achieve world-class status but there will be no financial assistance to private IoEs. "We believe that the government needs to reconsider the idea of not granting funding to private institutions selected as IoE. Similarly, as part of expanding the scope of the two per cent CSR spending, contributions made to public funded universities, IITs, national laboratories and autonomous bodies engaged in conducting research in science, technology, engineering and medicine has now been recognised by the government. The private institutions have been left out in that too," Kumar said at a press conference here.

"While 40 per cent of the universities and 80 per cent of the colleges in the country belong to the private sector, there is a need to involve both private and public institutions for holistic development of the higher education sector," he added. Kumar, also proposed a 10-point growth and reform plan for indian universities to promote excellence and achieve global rankings.

"Global rankings have emerged as a dominant way of measuring their performance. There is today a serious debate on the need for Indian universities to be in the top 200 universities of the world and the urgency of seeking reforms that will pave the way for promoting excellence in higher education and research. "It is important that Indian universities embrace the international rankings framework as well as international accreditation processes which will benchmark Indian universities with the world class universities in many countries," he said.

Ashvin Fernandes, QS Ranking's Regional Director for South Asia, said, "Indian universities need to talk about their achievements to build as strong a reputation as their research credentials".

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