January 9, 2021.
TED NewsDesk, New Delhi: The University Grants Commission is granting permission to the Institutes of Eminence (IoE) to start planning for setting up their branches in other countries. IoEs can do so only after they have been granted no-objection certificates from the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs. The National Education Policy, in its body, has specified that institutes with good records will be allowed to extend their campuses in other countries.
These Institutes of Eminence include IIT Kharagpur, IIT-Bombay, IIT-Madras and IIT-Delhi. According to the amendments (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations of 2017, “Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities shall be allowed to start new off-shore campuses with the prior approval of the Ministry after receiving No Objection Certificate from Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs.”
As per the amendments, the institutions can also set up new off-campus extensions. They can set up a maximum of three centres in five years and a maximum of one during one academic year. The amendments also stated that “The Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities shall ensure that the norms and standards of the offshore campus shall be the same as that maintained on the main campus for similar courses, and the off-shore campus shall also follow similar admission criteria, curriculum, examination system and evaluation system. All the information about off-shore campus shall be disclosed on the website of the Institution of Eminence Deemed to be University.”
Campuses abroad will come under the supervision of an Empowered Experts Committee, either on their own or in collaboration with the IoE in question. After the review, if the Committee finds that the institutions’ performance is not up to the mark, then they can recommend the union government to stop the functioning of the off-shore institute. In that case, “ln such cases, the interest of the students enrolled at the off-shore campus shall be adequately protected by the Institution of Eminence Deemed to be University.”
Permission has also been granted to the IoEs to establish an off-campus centre on a temporary campus that will be “subject to the condition that the permanent campus shall be ready within a reasonable time period of not exceeding five years.”
Such a move by the government is a foresighted one and will provide Indian institutions to grow more and try to attain the required global standards to compete with global standards of education.
Source: The Indian Express
