New Delhi: On Friday, the University Grants Commission (UGC) denied the ‘Institute of Eminence’ status to Ashoka University in Sonepat in Haryana, Jadavpur University in West Bengal, Azim Premji University and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements in Bengaluru, KREA University in Andhra Pradesh and the Indian Institute of Public Health in Gandhinagar.Aligarh Muslim University and Tezpur University also did not make the cut, officials said.The decision was taken on Friday at the 542nd UGC meeting, where the Commission recommended 15 public institutions and 15 private ones for consideration as Institutions of Eminence. Eventually, only 10 of each will be picked under the scheme.Among the public institutions to have made it to the first road block are Delhi University, Banaras Hindu University, IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur and the University of Hyderabad.Also read: Institutions of Eminence: Controversy Overshadows Need for Transparency, ComplexityAmong private universities, the government will give the tag to OP Jindal University in Sonipat, Shiv Nadar University in Greater Noida, Jamia Hamdard in New Delhi, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham in Bengaluru, VIT Vellore, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology in Bhubaneswar, and Satya Bharti Foundation.Among universities that have got the UGC recommendation for issuing letter of intent are Jamia Hamdard University, OP Jindal Global University, Shiv Nadar University.“Since the thrust of the scheme is to prepare institutions for the global rankings, no existing institution which has not figured in any of the global/national ranks shall be recommended for the IoE status,” said the statement.“Only after exhausting the above criterion, if any slot remains vacant, consideration shall be given to ‘yet to be established (Greenfield)’ proposals,” it added.The Centre launched the IoE initiative in 2017 with the goal of breaking into the ranks of the top 500 institutions worldwide.In the first week of December 2018, the Empowered Experts Committee (EEC) had forwarded the names of 19 institutions for consideration of eminence status to the University Grants Commission (UGC). At the time, the government and the EEC reportedly differed over the number of institutions to be considered ’eminent’. The EEC wanted all of its 30 recommendations to go through whereas the government preferred sticking to 20 as originally stipulated.
