According to the country’s higher education regulator, the government’s ‘Institutions of Eminence’ will be free to admit more foreign students, fix their fees and ink collaboration with the foreign universities without the prior approval from the government of India.
As of now, the government has declared a total of 10 institutes as ‘Institutions of Eminence’.
According to the new guidelines framed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for the ‘Institutions of Eminence’, these institutes will be free to add additional foreign students on merit subject to 30 percent of the strength of admitted domestic students.
“Academic collaborations with foreign higher educational institutions ranked in top 5OO in global rankings would be exempt from government approvals except with institutions from negative list of countries determined by the Ministry of External Affairs/Ministry of Home Affairs,” a senior UGC official said.
“The Institutions of Eminence shall have complete flexibility in fixing of curriculum and syllabus, with no UGC mandated curriculum structure. They will also have freedom to offer online courses as part of their programs with the restriction that not more than 20 per cent of the course should be in online mode. However, this 20 per cent restriction would not preclude the institutions from offering certificate courses entirely through online mode,” the senior UGC official said.
“These 10 institutions would be a mix of technical institutions, management and arts institutions and central universities. They should figure in the top 50 of the ranking in their category under the latest National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF),” the official added.
