The Centre is considering removing the Indian Institutes of Technology in Delhi and Mumbai from the control of the IIT Council as they recently received the Institution of Eminence tag, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.
While the IIT Council is the highest decision-making body of all IITs, the Institution of Eminence tag gives the campuses in Delhi and Mumbai greater autonomy and allows them to decide their tuition fee and course structure. The IIT Act, however, requires the IIT Council to make such decisions.
“We want to remove contradictions,” Higher Education Secretary R Subrahmanyam was quoted as saying. “On one hand, as IoEs [Institutions of Eminence], the two IITs have extensive autonomy, but, under the IIT Act, they are still bound by the decisions of the IIT Council. This matter could be discussed at the upcoming meeting of the IIT Council on August 21.”
On July 9, the government had granted the Institution of Eminence status to three public and three private educational institutions in India. Public institutions with this tag will get special funding of Rs 1,000 crore over the next five years. The tag makes private institutions eligible for academic and administrative autonomy.
The Indian Institutes of Technology of Delhi and Mumbai, and Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science were the three public sector institutions, while the private institutions that received this tag were Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, and the Reliance Foundation’s yet-to-be-set-up Jio Institute.
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