PMO wants more institutes to bid for ‘world class’ tag
HRD
ministry has expedited the plan to create world class universities and further
relaxed the rules to encourage more private and public institutions bid for the
tag
New
Delhi: Under pressure
from the prime minister’s office, the human resource development ministry has
expedited the plan to create world class universities and further relaxed the
rules to encourage more private and public institutions bid for the tag.
Months
after it floated draft rules, the ministry has now changed several of them,
according to two government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity and
documents seen by Mint.
First,
institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) will have the
liberty to apply for the “world class” tag and the extra fund without having to
become a university. The IIMs are also not required to expand their student
base to 15,000 over the next 10 years. IIMs believed that doing so would dilute
their brand value. Instead, they may be required to have between 2000 to 5000
students over a 10-year period.
In
February 2016, the Union government announced a plan to establish 20 world
class universities in India—10 each in the private and public space in February
2016. While a select group of existing public institutions will be upgraded to
the world class status, both existing and upcoming private institutions can bid
for the tag. The tag, which has been changed from “world class university” to
“institute of eminence” will provide academic and financial autonomy and the
University Grants Commission will have little say in the functioning of such
institutions. Public institutions will get financial support from the human
resource development ministry.
Though
the HRD ministry has already received approval from the finance ministry to
spend Rs10,000 crore for the 10 public institutions that will be selected for
the scheme, it is unlikely to give them the full amount.
The
ministry is of the view that institutions should not depend on free government
money alone. It will encourage selected institutions to bring between 25% and
50% of the amount, said the first government official. “Instead of giving
Rs1,000 crore to each of the 10 public institutions, the HRD ministry is set to
give between 50% to 75% of the amount over a period of five years. Rest
(between Rs250 crore to 500 crore) the institutions will have to pump in,” he
said.
The
third important change concerns the “letter of intent”, a written affidavit
that promoters of private institutions will have to furnish. In the letter, the
promoter will have to declare that the new institution will be operational
within three years. If that doesn’t happen, the institution will lose the
institute of eminence tag.
The
ministry has added a caveat to this—if a new institutions fails to make enough
progress in the first 18 to 20 months, then it will cancel its candidature. And
it will replace the disqualified institution from a reserve list of
institutions.
The
private institutions under the project will enjoy two key freedoms: one, they
can offer as much salary as they want to their teaching staff; and two, the
course fee can be completely market linked. The government institutions,
however, will have to follow the UGC scale of pay for permanent employees. For
contractual staff including professors on contract, they too can pay as much as
they wish.
The
government will monitor the progress of these institutions for 15 years. Under
pressure from the PMO, the scheme is expected to be approved by the cabinet
before 26 May when the NDA government completes three years in office.
Pankaj
Chandra, vice-chancellor and chairman, board of management, Ahmedabad
University, said that the plan will help top institutions provide quality
education without many regulations.
Source | Mint | 23 May 2017
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Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @
Knowledge Repository
Khaitan
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