In September 2019, the HRD had granted the status of “Institute of eminence” (IOE) to the Delhi University, Banaras Hindu University, University of Hyderabad, IIT-Madrasand IIT-Kharagpur.
The government will provide funding of up to Rs 1,000 crore to public institutions with IoE tag. In case of the private institutions proposed as institutions of eminence, there will be no financial support, but they will be entitled for more autonomy as a special category deemed University.
However, the University of Delhi has decided to defer discussion on the issue because of the opposition it had received from the members of it’s Executive Council. Â The teachers argued that accepting the IoE status will place the university under tremendous financial strain and lead to fee increase for students. Moreover, the teachers were not willing to start any courses in DU which were beyond the general control of Academics Council and Executive Council of the university.
To add on to that, there was this fear that the institute of eminence tag might lead to privatisation of the university.Executive Council member VS Negi believed that the DU administration should have consulted the statuatory bodies of the university before applying for the tag.The discussion was finally deferred following all the opposition and would happen once the documents pertaining to the matter are placed before the Council.
