Institutes of Eminence
Institutes of Eminence is a recognition scheme for higher education institutes in India, set by the University Grants Commission in 2017. The plan encompasses twenty institutions, 16 of which have already been declared Institutes of Eminence as of 2019. Recognized institutes are granted more autonomy, both administratively and academically, and will enjoy better collaboration opportunities with global universities. Public institutions are granted up to ; no funding is awarded to private institutions.
Incentives of the scheme
The regulatory infrastructure for the Institutes of Eminence plan was provided by the University Grants Commission through the UGC Guidelines, 2017 for public institutions and UGC Regulations, 2017 for private deemed to be university institutions. According to these, both categories of institutions are granted more autonomy, both administratively and academically, and both will enjoy better collaboration opportunities with global universities. Public institutions are also granted up to but no funding is awarded to private institutions.History
The IoE scheme was first announced in the presentation of the 2016 Union budget of India on 29 February 2016 by the Finance Minister of India, Arun Jaitley. The purpose of the plan was stated as "... to empower Higher Educational Institutions to help them become world class teaching and research institutions". The plan will include twenty institutes, ten private and ten public. The UGC set the guidelines and regulations for IoE in 2017 and set up an Empowered Expert Committee which was tasked with the selection of the institutes and later with monitoring them.The EEC considered 114 applications, 74 from public institutes and 40 from private ones, including institutes which are yet to be established, and in May 2018 shortlisted eight public institutes and three private ones. However, on the principle of giving equal weight to both categories of institutions, only six institutes were recommended by the UGC in July 2018, three from each category, a move which has drawn some criticism. More criticism was drawn to the fact that one of the private institutes recommended, Jio Institute, which was sponsored by Reliance Foundation, does not yet exist. The recommendation of the UGC was accepted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
In December 2018, the EEC recommended 19 more institutes, completing a list of 15 institutes from each category, allowing for five institutes in each category in a reserve list. These institutes were ranked by the UGC based on QS World University Rankings, in which National Institutional Ranking Framework was used as a tie-breaker for private universities. The resulting 14 institutes, seven in each category, were recommended by the UGC for IoE status in August 2019. This included two public institutes, Anna University and Jadavpur University, which will be considered for IoE status only if the respective state universities will comment to finance half of the investment. For private institutes, since not enough institutes were ranked, one vacant position was granted in the "greenfield" category, which gives the institute three years to operationalise the institution, after which the EEC will consider giving them the IoE status. This move again drew some controversy. In September 2019, the MHRD awarded IoE status to an additional five public institutes, four existing private institutes, and another private institute in the greenfield category. Two private universities, Shiv Nadar University and O. P. Jindal Global University, require state legislation to end the existing private university status, in order to be declared IoE Deemed Universities.
List of institutes
, the ten public institutes selected are:| Name | Location | Status |
| Banaras Hindu University | Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh | Declared |
| Indian Institute of Science | Bengaluru, Karnataka | Declared |
| Indian Institute of Technology Bombay | Mumbai, Maharashtra | Declared |
| Indian Institute of Technology Delhi | New Delhi | Declared |
| Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur | Kharagpur, West Bengal | Declared |
| Indian Institute of Technology Madras | Chennai, Tamil Nadu | Declared |
| University of Delhi | New Delhi | Declared |
| University of Hyderabad | Hyderabad, Telangana | Declared |
| Anna University | Chennai, Tamil Nadu | Action needed |
| Jadavpur University | Kolkata, West Bengal | Action needed |
The ten private institutes are:
| Name | Location | Status |
| Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham | Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu | Given Letter of Intent |
| Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani | Pilani, Rajasthan | Given Letter of Intent |
| Jamia Hamdard | Delhi | Given Letter of Intent |
| Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology | Bhubaneswar, Odisha | Given Letter of Intent |
| Manipal Academy of Higher Education | Manipal, Karnataka | Given Letter of Intent |
| Vellore Institute of Technology | Vellore, Tamil Nadu | Given Letter of Intent |
| Satya Bharti University | Haryana | Given Letter of Intent, greenfield |
| Jio Institute | Maharashtra | Given Letter of Intent, greenfield |
| Shiv Nadar University | Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh | Action needed |
| O. P. Jindal Global University | Sonipat, Haryana | Action needed |