Reference Text
Time Left10:00
In
his
2016
union
budget
speech,
the
finance
minister
announced
that
an
regulatory
architecture
will
be
provided
to
10
public
and
10
private
institutions
to
emerge
as
world-class
institutions>.
This
path-breaking
initiative
was
widely
appreciated.
In
early
2017,
the
UGC
approved
the
guidelines
for
creating
20
world-class
institutions
that
were
renamed
of
eminence>
(IoE).
The
outcome
of
the
process
that
took
more
than
two
years
was
that
out
of
over
900
universities,
only
six
have
the
potential
to
become
world-class
universities.
It
is
a
damning
indictment
of
the
Indian
higher
education
system
in
ways
that
the
original
policy
clearly
did
not
intend.
The
IoE
process
needs
a
fresh
perspective.
Other
than
the
UGC
Guidelines
(2016)
and
Regulations
(2017),
and
statements
by
the
finance
and
HRD
ministers,
the
exercise
to
confer
IoE
status
to
20
institutions
was
reiterated
by
Prime
Minister
Narendra
Modi
in
a
speech
at
the
Patna
University
in
October
2017.
Based
on
these
statements
that
expressed
the
government's
seriousness
in
creating
world-class
universities,
one
can't
help
but
reflect
upon
the
legitimate
expectations
of
the
applicant
institutions.
In
all,
114
institutions
applied
on
the
basis
of
a
promise
laid
down
in
policies
announced
by
the
government.
The
terms
of
references
under
which
the
Empowered
Committee
was
tasked
to
identify
universities
were
not
made
public.
The
process
of
selecting
the
empowering
universities
was
arbitrary.
Universities
take
decades
to
evolve.
The
attention
should
have
been
on
empowering
existing
brown-field
universities,
rather
than
recognising
non-existing
universities
as
contenders.
Institution
building
is
about
a
deeper
recognition
of
what
it
takes
to
build
a
culture
of
excellence.
Lived
experiences
of
individuals
matter
more
in
universities
than
in
any
other
organisation.
Even
if
there
was
a
vision
to
recognise
green-field
institutions,
there
should
have
been
a
separate
criteria
and
process
to
evaluate
them.
At
a
policy
level,
identical
treatment
of
existing
and
green-field
institutions
was
unfair
and
a
grave
mistake.
In
his
2016
union
budget
speech,
the
finance
minister
announced
that
an
regulatory
architecture
will
be
provided
to
10
public
and
10
private
institutions
to
emerge
as
world-class
institutions>.
This
path-breaking
initiative
was
widely
appreciated.
In
early
2017,
the
UGC
approved
the
guidelines
for
creating
20
world-class
institutions
that
were
renamed
of
eminence>
(IoE).
The
outcome
of
the
process
that
took
more
than
two
years
was
that
out
of
over
900
universities,
only
six
have
the
potential
to
become
world-class
universities.
It
is
a
damning
indictment
of
the
Indian
higher
education
system
in
ways
that
the
original
policy
clearly
did
not
intend.
The
IoE
process
needs
a
fresh
perspective.
Other
than
the
UGC
Guidelines
(2016)
and
Regulations
(2017),
and
statements
by
the
finance
and
HRD
ministers,
the
exercise
to
confer
IoE