UGC allows institutes of eminence to set up offshore campuses

In News: The University Grants Commission (UGC) notified amendments to regulations for Institutes of Eminence.

Among key changes, the regulations permit Institutes of Eminence to set up off-shore campuses and off-campus centre

- Institutes of Eminence are permitted to set up a maximum of three off-campus centres in five years, subject to not more than one centre in a year.
- Institutions can submit their application to the Ministry detailing a 10-year vision plan and a 5-year implementation plan.
- Further, they should meet the following conditions in the proposed off-campus centre within a period of five years:
  - a minimum of 500 students under regular classroom mode with at-least one-third as postgraduate or research students,
  - five postgraduate programmes,
  - a teacher-student ratio of 1:10, and
  - at least 60% of the faculty must be appointed at a permanent basis.
Off-shore campus (a campus outside India)
- Institutes of Eminence are permitted to set up off-shore campuses with the approval of the Ministry of Education and after receiving no objection certificate from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of External Affairs.
- The Institutes must ensure that they follow the same norms and standards for admissions, curriculum, and examination as in the main campus.
The functioning of the off-campus centres and the off-shore campuses of the Institutes will be reviewed by an Expert Committee once in three years, which can recommend discontinuation of the off-campus centre/off-shore campus.
Note that the National Education Policy had recommended that high performing Indian universities must be encouraged to set up campuses in other countries.

Institutions of Eminence

The Institutions of Eminence scheme was launched in 2017.
Under the Scheme, 10 public institutions and 10 private institutions have been declared as Institutes of Eminence.

objectives of the scheme

To provide for higher education leading to excellence and innovations in such branches of knowledge as may be deemed fit at post-graduate, graduate and research degree levels and award degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions;
To engage in areas of specialization to make distinctive contributions to the objectives of the university education system wherein the academic engagement is clearly distinguishable from programmes of an ordinary nature and is tuned to developing the capacity of the students and the researchers to compete in the global tertiary education marketplace through the acquisition and creation of advanced knowledge in those areas;
to provide for high quality teaching and research and for the advancement of knowledge and its dissemination through various research programmes undertaken in-house by substantial number of full time faculty and research scholars in diverse disciplines;
To pay special attention to teaching and research in unique and emerging areas of knowledge, including interdisciplinary areas, which are regarded as important for strategic needs of the country but are not being pursued by conventional or existing institutions so far, and award degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions.
To aim to be rated internationally for its teaching and research as a top hundred Institution in the world over time.