Institution of Eminence Status
Being named an Institution of Eminence (IoE) is a privilege afforded to just 20 universities in India. However, along with the tag comes several expectations and responsibilities, all of which must be sustained.
The following are the expectations as per the University Grants Commission (UGC):
- Highly qualified faculty, with freedom to hire from across the world.
- Existence of academic, administrative and financial autonomy.
- Excellence in research.
- High quality of teaching.
- High levels of funding.
- Adequate financial assistance to meritorious students to support a need-blind admissions process.
- Selection of students through a transparent system so as to ensure intake of meritorious students.
- A significant proportion of international students.
- Autonomous governance structures.
- Well-equipped facilities for teaching, research, administration, and student life.
- Tangible and intangible contribution to the society and
- Ability to leverage alumni and alternative funding sources, and the autonomy to utilize these resources.
- It should preferably be multi-disciplinary or interdisciplinary and have both teaching and research focus of exceptionally high quality.
- It should offer interdisciplinary 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.
- It should have a good proportion of foreign or foreign qualified faculty.
- There should be a reasonably good mix of Indian and foreign students.
- There should be a transparent merit-based selection in admissions, so that the focus remains on getting meritorious students.
- The admission process should be need-blind – so that once a student gets admission purely on merit, such a meritorious student should not be turned away for lack of financial ability.
- The faculty-student ratio should not be less than 1:20 at the time of notification issued declaring an Institution as an Institution of Eminence and should increase over time so as not to be less than 1:10 after five years of this date. The faculty for this purpose includes the regular faculty, adjunct faculty, and long term faculty (for at least three years). Part-time faculty shall not be counted for the purpose.
- There should be laboratory facilities to undertake cutting-edge scientific research for those IoEs to be Universities doing scientific research. In case of humanities, social science and other interdisciplinary areas, the faculty should be engaged in research and fieldwork in frontier areas using the latest methodologies.
- The IoE should strive to achieve social impact by engaging in applied research and innovation in issues of concern to developing societies.
- The IoE should develop teaching and research collaborations with a reasonable number of global universities figuring in the most reputed global rankings.
- The IoE should be known for promoting a culture where faculty are encouraged to publish regularly in peer-reviewed journals and engage academically with the issues of concern to the society. It should have a record of research publications at the mean rate of at least one per faculty member each year in reputed peer-reviewed international journals based on publication made by top 100 global Universities in these journals. For this purpose:
- The IoE should have a world-class library with subscriptions to reputed journals in the areas of courses it is offering.
- The IoE should have student amenities comparable with that of globally reputed institutions.
Click here to know about Selection Process for Awarding of Institution of Eminence Status
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