NEW DELHI: The Centre has decided to adopt the parameters used in top international ranking such as QS and Times rankings for higher education institutes to assess the progress of 20 institutes that have been granted the prestigious ‘institute of eminence’ (IoE) tag.
The decision comes following the recommendation by a panel comprising or comprising of IIT directors that had been tasked to recommend ways to improve perception and international rankings of the institutes with the tags.
The main parameters that are used in international rankings of universities include academic and employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, research citations per faculty, international faculty and international student ratios.
Over the last two years, 20 institutes of higher education — 10 each in private and public sectors, including some yet to be opened universities — have been given the ‘IoE’ tag. Through the status, the government has offered additional monetary assistance to public institutions and greater autonomy in setting and running the campuses in case of private institutions.
In a review meeting of the institutes on Monday, Union minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank said that an incentive mechanism for institutions shall be developed to reward the IoEs that are doing well and an integrated portal containing world-class research papers from all institutes will be made.
“These are based on the suggestions given by the panel and we will soon formulate the specific plan for the two categories-private and public—separately,” said a senior official who attended the meeting.
“Various topics were discussed during the meeting like: What measures can be taken to accelerate the recruitment of International faculty,” Nishank tweeted after the meeting.
“The progress of IoEs shall be mapped with the indicators of THE/QS World University Rankings and international standards.”
The minister also said that measures will be taken to engineer a better perception of IoEs.
“Officials were directed to develop a detailed strategy (with both qualitative and quantitative parameters) for brand building of the institutes,” he also wrote.
There are also plans to adopt recommendations from the newly released National Education Policy, such as multiple entry and exit, online degrees, multidisciplinary and internationalization among others to ensure the success of IoEs, sources said.
Last year, the final list of public institutes granted the status included Banaras Hindu University, IITs in Delhi, Bombay, Madras and Kharagpur, Indian Institute of Science, Delhi University, Hyderabad University and Jadavpur University.