Samikhsya Bureau
There must be some mishmash in awarding tags to universities in India by the University Grants Commission(UGC) like Institutes of Eminence. The two in question are the KIIT and the VIT facing the heat of suspense.
And, this wisdom in hindsight has somehow dawned upon the government of India as whether certain such tags given to two institutions fall within the criteria or eligibility prescribed or not.
One wonders what went wrong with the government itself and the UGC, if Bhubaneswar based Kalinga Institute Of Industrial Technology( KIIT) and Vellore based VIT, in Tamil Nadu, possess the eligibility to earn the IoE tag.
According to a report in an national English newspaper, the tag awarded in Aug 2019 August, these two institutions “do not meet the eligibility criterion on the net worth of the sponsoring organisation members”. Going by the UGC regulations, “ both categories of institutions are granted more autonomy, both administratively and academically, and both will enjoy better collaboration opportunities with global universities “ and it also says that, “ Public institutions are also granted up to Rs. 1,000 crore(equivalent to Rs.11 billion or US$ 150 million in 2018) but no funding is awarded to private institutions”.
Further, in 2017, the UGC had also set the guidelines and regulations for IoE and set up an Empowered Expert Committee(EEC) which was tasked with the section of the institutes and later monitoring them”.
If the guidelines were so prescribed and were under a watchful mechanism, them the government asking the UGC for a clarification on the tags given to KIIT & VIT, does it smack of any act of omission either deliberately triggered or, just given a casual short-shrift is not known.
The UGC regulation also envisage that, on the IoE scheme, “the sponsoring organisation is a charitable or a non-profit Society or public Trust or a Company incorporated under section 8 of the Companies Act 2013 applying to upgrade an existing private institution or a new one to IoE”.
According to the report that appeared in The Indian Express, there is an occasion where each one trying to absolve of responsibilities and for example, the report quotes the head of the EEC saying that, they are not “involved in this ( checking eligibility ) ‘ and rather it was the government which sent the names of these institutions whether fulfilling the (eligibility) criteria.
It is for the government who decided the names and not the EEC, says the report quoting the latter.The bigger question is, the EEC reportedly pointed out that, it is for the UGC or the Government who sent the list to the EEC , and if there is any lacunae in that, it is for the UGC and the Centre to think not the EEC.
It all seems that there might be something amiss and now there is washing-the-hands-off the issue by passing the buck over the status given to the KIIT & the VIT.
