NIT-T faculty upset over missing status of institution of eminence

‘It still remains in a strong position to secure the status in the next round’
There is a sense of disappointment among faculties of National Institute of Technology - Tiruchi (NIT-T) over not finding a place in the list of ‘institutions of eminence’ announced by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

They were quite hopeful that the NIT-T would be a natural choice for the status by virtue of its top-rank among 31 NITs in the country; its 11th ranking among engineering institutions, and 31st overall ranking, under the MHRD’s National Institutional Ranking Framework. Besides, the institution has path-breaking projects to its credit. Absence of diversity in the choice of institutions is the prime cause for disappointment, teachers said.

The UGC (Declaration of Government Educational Institutions as Institutions of Eminence) Guidelines, 2017 and UGC (Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2017, envisage emergence of 10 public and 10 private institutions as world class teaching and research institutions. The aim is to bring higher educational institutions selected as IoEs in top 500 of world ranking in the next 10 years and in top 100 eventually.

But, the MHRD had chosen only three public institutions this year: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay, IIT-Delhi and IISc Bangalore; and three three private institutions: Jio Institute by Reliance Foundation, BITS Pilani, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, for the status.

The line of thinking among the faculties of in NIT-T is that there cannot be a level-playing field between NITs and IITs / IIScs. The objective ought to have been to provide opportunities to the NITs as well to emerge stronger and break into the global ranking, a senior faculty member said, elaborating that the Rs. 1,000 crore MHRD funding for a public institution chosen as IoE, over a five-year period, would have ensured a huge stride in developing world class teaching and research facilities had NIT-T been chosen for the status.

Nevertheless, there is still optimism that the NIT-T still remains in a strong position to secure the status in the next round, faculties said.

By virtue of the IoE status, a public institution will have the leverage to exercise autonomy through admitting foreign students to the extent of 30 %, recruiting foreign faculty to the extent of 25 %, convert 20 % of its courses into online mode; and entering into academic collaboration with top 500 world ranking institutions without UGC permission.

A public institution with IoE status will be free to fix and charge fees from foreign students without restriction; enjoy flexibility of devising course structure in terms of number of credit hours and years to take a degree; and exercise complete flexibility in fixing of curriculum and syllabus.

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