New Delhi: The private institutions aspiring for the tag of “National Institutes of Eminence” have raised their concerns over the eligibility criteria for the same.
As per the guidelines for the National Institutes of Eminence, one of the eligibility criteria for the private institutions is that the sponsoring organizations should have a net worth of Rs 5000 crore for Green field (a new initiative in education) and Rs 3,000 crore Brown field (older institute that needs upgradation).
The institutes raised their concerns when the Ministry of Human Resource Development held a session with them at AICTE here, which was chaired by the secretary higher education KK Sharma. Joint Secretary Ishita Roy and acting chairman of University Grants Commission VS Chauhan were also present, along other than representatives of 150 such institutes.
Questions were raised on what the net worth actually means; if it applies to the sponsoring organization or the collective net worth of members of the organization.
The meaning of “net worth” raised doubts on whether only corporate giants could fulfil this criteria, considering some of the private institutes like Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies was run by a public charitable trust since 1984. Similar concerns of net worth were raised by institutes like Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences, Symbiosis, etc.
The concerns raised were enough for the ministry to take a second look at the eligibility criteria.
“We have taken note of the ambiguity and have decided to relook into the eligibility criteria,” said the source from the ministry, present at the briefing at AICTE.
Concerns were also raised the last time the government held a briefing with 47 of IITs, IIMs, NITs, IISER’s in the beginning of this week. Many of them had expressed dismay over the high amount application amount– 1 crore-though 75 lakhs will be refunded if the application is rejected for NIE. The applicaions were invited on 13th September 2017 and last date of submitting the forms is 12 December 2017.
An intellectual associated with a university said that there was no bid to corporatise the higher education because the proposal also involves public institutes. “It is in that way different from UPA's institute of Innovation, which did not extend to government institutes,” the intellectual told CNN-News18.
Comments
0 comment