IoE panel may be expanded to pick more institutions

Days after the central government waded into a controversy over the Institutes of Eminence status to six institutes picked by a panel, it is now mulling changes to this Empowered Expert Committee (EEC).

It is gathered that high level discussions are on in the government over bringing in new members to the EEC ahead of the second round of selection of institutes. While some candidates have already been discussed, there is no final decision on them yet, ET has learnt.

The EEC — announced in February this year — currently has on board Tarun Khanna of Harvard Business School, Renu Khator, president of University of Houston and Pritam Singh, former director of IIM Lucknow. Former chief election commissioner N. Gopalaswami heads the committee.


EEC’S ROLE CRITICAL
The move to expand the EEC comes also at a time when the government is set to ask the panel to recommend 10 institutes in the public and private category each for Institute of Eminence tag, as was originally decided.

This would require another round of meetings by the EEC.

With Khator and Khanna stay abroad, it is felt in the human resource development (HRD) ministry that it will be necessary to bring in more India-based academicians on board so that the EEC can function smoothly on a more regular or even day-to-day basis if necessary. Both Khanna and Khator had flown to India for the initial meetings to select Institutes of Eminence. Later, however, they attended meetings via video conferencing.

Considering that the EEC will continue to stay relevant and active even after selecting the institutes makes its position critical in the years to come.

According to UGC (Declaration of Government Educational Institutions as Institutions of Eminence) Guidelines, 2017, the EEC will be the chief body to monitor and review all institutes of eminence.

FOR A LONGER LIST
The committee had originally recommended eight public institutions and just three in the private sector instead of 10 each. The government ultimately decided to announce only three institutes in each category. The recommendations have, however, run into a controversy with questions being raised about the selection criteria, particularly the selection of the Reliance-backed Jio University in the private category. Jio University is the only greenfield institute among the six selected.

The government, however, now feels that the eminence status should be accorded to 20 institutes as was announced in the Union budget of 2016.

The ministry’s argument is that this can be achieved if the institutes most eligible in the list can correct certain deficiencies that may have been pointed out by the EEC.

While the selection process would not be so difficult for public category where the committee had picked eight institutes, it will be more challenging to find seven more eligible institutes from the private category.