Telangana Varsities Loses the IoE Tag

After losing the tag of Institution of Eminence, awarded by the University Grant Commission to the top universities of India, the varsity of Telangana state Universities along with the varsity of Andra Pradesh state Universities are complaining against the Eligibility Criteria and Selection Process of shortlisting the Universities.

A University has to do the following in order to receive the IoE Tag:

• It is necessary for the universities competing to get the IoE tag to have an A+ rating by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council.
• Universities have to submit a project to the UGC along with an estimated budget to implement it. Selected universities get 70% of the estimated budget if they get selected or a grant of Rs 1,000 Crore to implement the project further.

Also Read: 24 Institutes in the IoE Race

As per the experts of the field, State Council of Higher Education - Telangana & AP stated that Osmania University, Telangana and Andra University, AP were rated A + by NAAC which made them deserving of the IoE tag. Also, both the universities submitted their project proposals with the following estimated cost:

Despite doing all of the above, these universities couldn't make it up to secure a position amongst the 104 educational institutions. According to a senior administrator of Osmania University, most of the selected educational institutes are either central or IITs. Even Private Universities have managed secure IoE this time, however, only one state University that is the Jadavpur University of West Bengal has secured the IoE tag.

Officials have a lot to argue upon, here is the list of arguments raised by Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Varsities:

• Central Universities, NITs, IITs and IIMs are unitary educational centres, unlike state Universities where several courses are offered to students from Anthropology to Zoology. Whereas, selected universities offer courses centric to only one field.
• The Cental universities receive enough grants from the centre already to complete their proposals and projects. Whereas the state Universities receive limited funds, thus, the IoE status and award would help them in improving the condition of education more.
• Thus, it is unfair to club State Universities with other universities while selecting the IoE tag institutions.

Also Read: UGC Panel To Select 20 IoE Institutions

Professor PVGD Prasad Reddy, Vice-Chancellor of Andra university stated that higher officials of both universities are trying to submit a letter to the mentioning their issues and revised plan to the Empowered Expert Committee as to consider their applications for re-evaluation.

The arguments raised by the universities seem reasonable and now it is up to the selection committee as to re-evaluate their proposal or not. If they do so, many other state Universities might send re-evaluation applications too.

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