Accordingly, UGC notified ‘UGC (Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2017’ for private institutions and guidelines ‘UGC (Declaration of Government Educational Institutions as Institutions of Eminence) Guidelines, 2017’ for public institutions on 07.09.2017 to provide regulatory structure for enabling Higher Educational Institutions to become world-class teaching and research institutions.

OBJECTIVES OF THE SCHEME – INSTITUTIONS OF EMINENCE:

• to provide for higher education leading to excellence and innovations in such branches of knowledge as may be deemed fit at post-graduate, graduate and research degree levels and award degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions;
• to engage in areas of specialization to make distinctive contributions to the objectives of the university education system wherein the academic engagement is clearly distinguishable from programmes of an ordinary nature and is tuned to developing the capacity of the students and the researchers to compete in the global tertiary education marketplace through the acquisition and creation of advanced knowledge in those areas;
• to provide for high quality teaching and research and for the advancement of knowledge and its dissemination through various research programmes undertaken in-house by substantial number of full time faculty and research scholars in diverse disciplines;
• to pay special attention to teaching and research in unique and emerging areas of knowledge, including interdisciplinary areas, which are regarded as important for strategic needs of the country but are not being pursued by conventional or existing institutions so far, and award degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions.
• to aim to be rated internationally for its teaching and research as a top hundred Institution in the world over time.

EXPECTATIONS FROM THE INSTITUTIONS OF EMINENCE:

Notable features present in existing international institutions of global repute, which figure at the top in all reputed ranking frameworks, include the following:

1. Highly qualified faculty, with freedom to hire from across the world;
2. Existence of academic, administrative and financial autonomy;
3. Excellence in research;
4. High Quality of teaching;
5. High levels of funding;
6. Adequate financial assistance to meritorious students to support a need-blind admissions process;
7. Selection of students through a transparent system so as to ensure intake of meritorious students;
8. A significant proportion of international students;
9. Autonomous governance structures;
10. Well-equipped facilities for teaching, research, administration, and student life;
11. Tangible and intangible contribution to the society; and
12. Ability to leverage alumni and alternative funding sources, and the autonomy to utilize these resources
13. It should preferably be multi-disciplinary or inter-disciplinary and have both teaching and research focus of an exceptionally high quality.
14. It should offer inter-disciplinary courses, including in areas of emerging technology and interest as well as those of relevance to the development concerns of countries like India and also award degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions in such interdisciplinary areas.
15. It should have a good proportion of foreign or foreign qualified faculty.
16. There should be a reasonably good mix of Indian and foreign students.
17. There should be a transparent merit based selection in admissions, so that the focus remains on getting meritorious students.
18. The admission process should be need-blind – so that once a student gets admission purely on merit, such a meritorious student should not be turned away for lack of financial ability.
19. The faculty student ratio should be not be less than 1:20 at the time of notification issued declaring an Institution as an Institution of Eminence and should increase over time so as not to be less than 1:10 after five years of this date. The faculty for this purpose includes the regular faculty, adjunct faculty, and long term faculty (for at least three years). Part time faculty shall not be counted for the purpose.
20. There should be laboratory facilities to undertake cutting-edge scientific research for those Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities doing scientific research. In case of humanities, social science and other interdisciplinary areas, the faculty should be engaged in research and field work in frontier areas using the latest methodologies.
21. The Institution of Eminence should strive to achieve social impact by engaging in applied research and innovation in issues of concern to developing societies.
22. The Institution of Eminence should develop teaching and research collaborations with a reasonable number of global universities figuring in the most reputed global rankings.
23. The Institution of Eminence should be known for promoting a culture where faculty are encouraged to publish regularly in peer-reviewed journals and engage academically with the issues of concern to the society. It should have a record of research publications at the mean rate of at least one per faculty member each year in reputed peer-reviewed international journals based on publication made by top 100 global Universities in these journals. For this purpose:
24. The Institution of Eminence should have a world-class library with subscriptions to reputed journals in the areas of courses it is offering.
25. The Institution of Eminence should have student amenities comparable with that of globally reputed institutions.