The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and the University of Hyderabad became the second and third higher education institutions in south India to be conferred with the ‘Institutions of Eminence’ (IoE) tag by the Union Ministry for Human Resource Development (MHRD).
The MHRD issued the orders on Thursday to five institutions on the recommendation of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the expert committee. The five institutions that have been given orders are – Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Banaras Hindu University, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, University of Delhi and University of Hyderabad. Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru has already been declared as an IoE by the MHRD.
In August, the UGC had recommended seven south Indian institutions of higher education for the IoE tag. Out of the seven south Indian institutions, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Vellore Institute of Technology were issued letters of intent (LoI) on Thursday for sending their preparedness for being declared Institutions of Eminence. The other educational institutions which were issued LoIs on Thursday are Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Odisha and Bharti Institute Satya Bharti Foundation, Punjab. Earlier, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal was issued a letter of intent by the UGC.
The process of selecting and declaring Institutions of Eminence had sparked controversy in 2018 when the central government announced Jio Institute (A Reliance Foundation initiative) as an IoE. This is because the institute had not been opened yet and all the other five names announced along with it were institutions of great repute.
UGC’s Empowered Expert Committee, had clarified then that Jio Institute had been chosen under the ‘Greenfield category’ and that three years’ time had been granted to set up the institute.