By Rudra Narayan Sahoo, New Delhi: The government of India is gearing up to set up 20 world-class higher education institutions as the HRD ministry has finally placed the draft regulations on this and invited the public’s comment in the matter. As per the initial plan, ten World Class Institutions each in public and private sector will be established in a reasonable time by providing an enabling regulatory environment that allow them to achieve the highest levels of global excellence in teaching and research.
As per the draft proposal, stringent norms have been stipulated for private players so that only serious institutions/parties can apply. The draft of UGC (World Class Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2016 says that existing private deemed universities private universities can apply. Even fresh proposals can be made. The Sponsoring Organization shall be not-for-profit society or a public trust or a company constituted under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013. The Sponsoring Organization should have members whose total net worth is at least Rupees eight thousand crore (8,000 cr), with at least one member having a net worth of Rupees two thousand crore (2,000 cr).
Adequate corpus fund: The World Class Institution Deemed to be University should have a corpus of at least Rupees two hundred crore (200 cr), a guaranteed pipeline for another Rupees five hundred crore (500 cr), and a credible plan that additional resources are available on demand, in the name of the World Class Institution Deemed to be University, which should not be less than Rupees one thousand crore (1000 cr). The source of funds should be known and should be available for scrutiny by competent authorities.
Multi-disciplinary with high quality education: The draft rules say that the World Class University should preferably be multi-disciplinary or inter-disciplinary and have both teaching and research focus of an exceptionally high quality. It should offer inter-disciplinary courses, including in areas of emerging technology and interest as well as those of relevance to the development concerns of countries like India and also award degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions in such interdisciplinary areas.
Foreign faculty and foreign students: The World Class Institution should have a good proportion of foreign or foreign qualified faculty while there should be a reasonably good mix of Indian and foreign students. The faculty student ratio should not be less than 1:10 after three years of declaration as a World Class Institution Deemed to be University.
Transparent student admission policy: A student admissions policy and plan to select Indian and foreign students and expand the enrolment to at least twenty thousand in fifteen years. While domestic students shall have to be selected through a transparent merit based system (which can be designed by the World Class Institution Deemed to be University itself), the World Class Institution Deemed to be University would be free to admit foreign students on merit as per its internal policies, subject to a maximum of additional thirty percent of the strength of admitted domestic students.
Freedom for fixing fees: The Draft regulations mentioned that the World Class Institution Deemed to be University would be free to fix fees, for both domestic and foreign students as per its internal policies, and would be exempted from any fee regulations which may be there in force. However, fee should be fixed in a transparent and upfront manner without any hidden charges to be taken from students.
Freedom for offering courses and programmes: The Institution shall have the freedom to offer courses within a programme as well as to offer degree in newer areas, after approval of its Governing Council and subject to broadly conforming to minimum prevailing standards, without consulting the Commission but with intimation to it. The World Class Institution Deemed to be University shall have complete financial autonomy to spend the resources raised and allocated.
Get ranked in NIFR and International Ranking agency: The World Class Institution Deemed to be University, within five years of its notification declaring it as a World Class Institution Deemed to be University, shall get itself ranked in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIFR) and in an International Ranking index of repute. An existing Institution which has been declared World Class Institution Deemed to be University should start getting ranked from the year when it gets a Letter of Intent. All Institutions should then continue to get themselves ranked in the National and International ranking frameworks.
The government of India will offer addition financial incentives to the World Class Institutions Deemed to be Universities selected in the aforesaid manner. These incentives would be available to all World Class Institutions Deemed to be Universities under these Regulations.
The Ministry of HRD has informed that the general citizens and public can share their Comments or Suggestions on draft Guidelines and Regulations for establishment of World Class Institutions latest by 28th October 2016 on email [email protected] OR in hard copies at R.N.405-C, Dept. Of Higher Education, Ministry of HRD, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi.
The document has been uploaded at the official home page of Ministry of HRD. The link is given below: http://mhrd.gov.in/ .
To read our previous story on the World Class Institute Public Consultation Document, interested visitor can follow the the below link:
