NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of the controversies at Jawaharlal Nehru University and the University of Hyderabad, the Human Resource Development Ministry is mulling over getting all Central universities peer-reviewed by an external panel of experts.
The proposal was first mooted at a Vice-Chancellors’ conference in 2012 but little progress was made in this regard till recently when Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani asked her officials to explore the possibility.
The recent campus controversies have made the ministry think of a peer review on certain parameters, much like the evaluation conducted by Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management, ministry officials said.
There are over 40 Central universities in the country and it is possible that a team of officials from one could undertake a review of another following an agreed format. “The external peer review is a mechanism under which a committee of experts from academia, research and industry once every five years assesses the performance of an Indian Institute of Technology on certain agreed parameters.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) may also be roped in for finalising details of the peer review process for universities.
The system of external peer review, which is also followed by many world-class institutions, was adopted by the Indian Institutes of Technologies a few years ago following a decision by the Indian Institutes of Technology Council.
The review committees for Indian Institutes of Technology consist of five eminent persons from industry and the academia.