Opinion Express View: Institutions of Eminence, mired in red tape

In 2017, the education ministry — then the Human Resource Development ministry — conceived the Institutions of Eminence (IOE) scheme to develop “world-class” centres of higher education in the country. Universities that met the IOE criteria were promised autonomy in financial matters and guaranteed unprecedented freedom to hire faculty and customise courses. Six years later, the project is yet to become the game changer it was intended to be. An investigation by this newspaper has revealed that the IOE scheme is hobbled by the very regulatory cholesterol from which it promised deliverance. Four private institutes, which have received the all-clear from the government-empowered committee, are yet to get the IOE tag. Four others, which have received this recognition, continue to face red tape on matters such as hiring foreign faculty and admitting foreign students. They find themselves encumbered by the UGC’s heavy-handed approach.

The scheme to increase the excellence quotient of Indian universities was part of a larger vision that found its most cogent expression in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The IOE’s focus on “multidisciplinarity” is of a piece with the NEP’s emphasis on “holistic education across the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities”. Ironically, however, the policy appears to be holding up the final approvals for the four private institutes that have been picked up for eminence. The Empowered Expert Committee that was created to make UGC regulations more flexible for the IOEs has become defunct. The idea of university autonomy is now embedded in the higher education regulator proposed by the NEP — the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI). The yet-to-be-born agency is mandated to secure IOE-type autonomy for all universities, not just select institutes. But this technicality is not the only bottleneck. The biggest Achilles heel for the IOEs seems to be the ethos of the higher education ecosystem that is decidedly pre-NEP 2020. Some of the directives issued to these institutes are, in fact, unreasonable. How else can one describe the UGC’s demand for a say in the naming of research cells in BITS Pilani and Manipal Institute of Higher Education? The university regulator’s interventions have led to seats falling vacant in at least three private IOEs. And, it’s not just the UGC. Institutions endeavouring to venture into the multidisciplinary arena have to often negotiate a regulatory maze that comprises agencies such as the National Medical Commission, Architecture Council of India and the Bar Council.

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This newspaper’s investigation reveals that government funds amounting to Rs 3,000 crore have helped eight public universities initiate ambitious reforms and set up state-of-the-art research infrastructure. This is a welcome development. Private IOEs, however, have been left to fend for themselves — even as the autonomy they were promised has been conspicuous by its absence. The government has often affirmed its ambition to develop India as a knowledge economy. The move to open up the education sector by inviting foreign universities is part of this endeavour. The investigation on IOEs shows that much more needs to be done on this front.