How the Geo Institute of Reliance was selected as 'Prestige Institute'

Here's how an interpreter Reliance government and non-organization have become such a big thing.

A total of 114 institutes had applied for the Institutions of the Amines Plan, with the aim of creating world-class educational institutions in the country. The elected public institutions will get Rs 1000 crore in financing and autonomy by stringent rules, while private people will get autonomy but no money will be available.

One of the applicants met qualifying criteria, 73 public institutions and 40 private. In the latter case, there were 11 "greenfield institutions", which means that they were still only proposals and were not established. After all, three public and three private institutions cut down, Geo Institute is the only Greenfield proposal.

The Report of the Expert Committee recommending six committees states that the Geo Institute's proposal was the only one who "made the trust of the new institution to meet the harsh goal rather than within 500 of world ranking in the ten year period" .

Did the selection committee have to select the Greenfield project?

No. The Geo Institute defeated 27 existing private institutes, which had applied for this scheme, including the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Ashok University, OP Jindal University, Azim Premji University and the Nursasi Monjee Institute of Management Studies.

In fact, even in the Greenfield category, the selection of the Geo Institute was done before the proposed Krayya University in Tamil Nadu, in which the Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan and the Vedanta University in Odisha. Even the well-established Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, was passed.

Indian School of Business How was a Greenfield Project?

Sanjay Kalpur, who created the business school pitch for the special situation, said that he had applied in the Greenfield category due to the clarification of the University Grants Commission on 17th November, 2017, which directs all those institutions which are currently university Or apply to that category is considered to be a university ".

Unlike the universities established through state or central law, some existing institutions are considered as "universities" through the provision of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, if they meet certain requirements.

Although forced to apply in the Greenfield category, the Indian School of Business did not propose to start a new institution. Instead, it presented a plan that intends to meet the required goals - 10,000 students, graduate programs and more foreigners in the campus.

How did the panel justify the selection of Xiao Institute?

Former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami, chaired by the selection committee, told the scroll in an interview that other greenfield applicants have no land, they were talking to the government for tax exemption for transfer of funds or a project before Had started and were now planning to start a new one.

Although it was "extremely difficult" to assess the proposal of the Geo Institute, but the panel has "information related to the promoter group [Ambani], his financial status, the commitment of finance and the infrastructure for the new project, his reputation" As leaders or actors in their respective fields. "On this basis, it" achieves the strength of the proposal and the desired [reputation institute] goals Mitigation possibilities understood by ".

So, the access to the Geo Institute for the Reliance fund and the land was a factor?

It has been stated in the report of the selection committee that the proposal of the Geo Institute was "well thought out, well presented, and taking the view of the impressive multi-decade of the institution building, which is in the processing group's infrastructure Built on timely construction of competent capabilities and new enterprises ".

A document issued by the Human Resource Development Ministry states that the Geo Institute has "possession of land" and its sponsors have made Rs 9,500 crore to make it. An official of the Ministry said that the land is in Karjat in Raigarh district of Maharashtra. Beginning of 2013, a Business Standard article shows that Mukesh Ambani was acquiring land for a university at that time.

As the Vice Chancellor of a private university who agreed to speak in an unknown way, there is a need for a lot of resources to establish a new institution. Holding it in the league of the top 500 institutions of the world - presently populated by very old institutions - within a decade is even more important. Therefore, they argued that it is not unreasonable to focus on the net worth of the people involved in the project, although it seems that it can be cross.

What do we need to know about the selection criteria? Did some factors matter more than others?

The result of the exercise has left many university administrators wondering what mattered more to the selection committee – an existing institution’s track record or the quality of its plans for the future.

That having a track record mattered in the selection process is evident from the committee’s report. But ultimately, as the report states, “the goal was singular: to assess the potential of an institution to be globally ranked among the top 500 in 10 years and eventually among the top 100”.

Though the University Grants Commission (Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2017 did set out some eligibility criteria, the focus was on setting targets for the selected institutions. The targets were based on parameters adopted by international university ranking agencies. The “indicative list of parameters” that, if met, could get an institution into the top 500 league were:

•   Multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary teaching and research.
•   Courses in “areas of emerging technology”.
•   A “good proportion” of foreign or foreign-qualified faculty.
•   A mix of Indian and foreign students.
•   An admission process that is “need-blind” – no one will be denied admission for the lack of resources.
•   Research publication at the “mean rate of at least one per faculty member each year”.
•   One teacher for every 10 students in five years.
•   Laboratories for “cutting-edge scientific research”.
•   Achieve social impact through research and innovation.
•   Student amenities comparable to the best in the world.

So the emphasis was on what they promised to achieve rather than what they had already?

The institutions were required to produce a “detailed and tangible action plan, milestones, and timelines” by which they planned to achieve these standards “mentioning milestones to be achieved in first five years and over 15 years”.

The regulations’ emphasis on plans and targets rather than tangible achievements and track records certainly made it easier for institutions with no history to compete effectively with those that do. Jio Institute has no track record but produced a plan that seemed tailor-made for the scheme. It had done nothing yet, but promised to meet every parameter.

But the focus on rankings damaged the prospects of some existing institutions. As the committee’s report states, the Indian Institute of Human Settlements and the Institute of Public Health Sciences, both greenfield applicants, did not make it because they “may not be eligible for a long time for world ranking in view of the focused areas in which they work”. For them, and similar public institutions such as the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata and the Indian Institutes of Management, the panel has recommended a separate scheme or plan. Institutions focusing on specific disciplines and fields of study do not fare well in “overall rankings” that favour comprehensive institutions.

Jio Institute has promised to be “multidisciplinary from the start” with 10 schools teaching over 50 disciplines, including the humanities, engineering, medicine, sports, law and performing arts. It intends to recruit faculty from the top 500 universities in the world, offering “start-up research packages” to attract them.

Is the fairness of the selection criteria in question?

Yes. Some have asked whether greenfield institutes should have been included in the scheme in the first place.

Several private university administrators who are not opposed to the selection of a greenfield project said that such proposals should have been considered a separate category. Teachers from public universities are more critical of the scheme being offered to proposed institutions and see it as a way of encouraging privatisation.

Is there anything else we need to know?

There are some other questions about how Jio Institute was selected. A report in the Economic Times pointed out that Mukesh Ambani was assisted by Vinay Sheel Oberoi, who was secretary of higher education in the human resource development ministry when the Institutions of Eminence scheme, then called the World Class Institutes Programme, was announced in the Union budget of 2016. The Business Standard meanwhile, reported that the Reliance group incorporated the Reliance Foundation Institution of Education Research, the sponsor of Jio Institute, just two weeks before the government notified the rules regarding the Institutions of Eminence.