BHU, AMU among 19 more picked for ‘eminence’ tag

NEW DELHI: The Empowered Expert Committee (EEC) has identified 19 more institutions — seven public and 12 private — for Institutions of Eminence (IoE) status. Submitting its second report to the ministry of human resource development on Friday, the committee recommended Banaras Hindu University, Tezpur University, Savithribai Phule Pune University, University of Hyderabad, Aligarh Muslim University, Panjab University and Andhra University in the government category.
The newly recommended private institutions are Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (Tamil Nadu), VIT (Vellore), Jamia Hamdard University (New Delhi), Shiv Nadar University (Noida), Azim Premji University (Karnataka), Ashoka University (Haryana), Krea University (Andhra Pradesh), Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (Bubaneshwar), OP Jindal Global University (Haryana), Indian Institute for Human Settlements (Bangalore), Institute of Public Health Sciences (Telangana) and Satya Bharti University (Haryana).
In the first list, the committee recommended eight public institutions of which three – IISc, Bangalore, IIT-Bombay and IIT-Delhi – were granted the IoE status. The three private institutions which were granted the status were BITS-Pilani, Manipal Academy of Higher Education and Jio Institute (under greenfield category).
In its second report, EEC has recommended additionally two institutions in the public category and seven in the private category which together with the previously recommended eight and three respectively, makes for 10 institutions recommended in each category. Further, EEC has also identified further five institutions in each category which, as per policy, were to be kept in reserve list.
The EEC, tasked with the selection of 20 institutions and monitor and review their implementation plans, after examining the proposals received, gave its first report in May. On UGC’s recommendation, three public and three private institutions were approved by the government invoking a principle of equal weightage to both categories of institutions.