Navaratna Universities to be selected from among the exisiting universities in India
October 5th, 2010
Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.
A committee of vice-chancellors has outlined a set of criteria for selecting institutions with the potential for excellence as Navaratna Universities, which will then be given more autonomy and resources.
“The Navaratna Universities would be India’s answer to the Ivy League of the US. These universities will be distinguished ones and will set an example for other institutions in the country,” Seyed Hasnain, the vice-chancellor of the University of Hyderabad, told The Telegraph.
… The suggested criteria include research output, patents, publications, sponsored projects, research grants received, ranking by the National Accreditation and Assessment Council and international agencies, funds, admission procedure, quality of faculty, financial support to students, and the ability to attract foreign students.
The government has asked the committee to submit a final report within two months.
All central and state universities can vie for a place in the Navaratna category, Hasnain said, adding that the group need not necessarily consist of nine institutions.
The universities selected will be provided additional financial support and given the right to hire teachers of their choice, appoint faculty by invitation, set up campuses abroad, hold faculty fairs in foreign countries, engage with institutions of repute for research and generate more resources from sponsored projects.
“The idea is that while setting up more institutions with the aim of achieving international levels, the existing institutions should not be left behind. It is a very good move by the government because the Navaratna institutions will be role models for others,” said Deepak Pental, vice-chancellor of Delhi University.
… Germany has categorised nine universities as Universities of Excellence, China has a similar group of 11 institutions and Australia has its Group-8, made up by the country’s top eight universities.
“This move will create a spirit of competition among institutions to excel. In the process, the quality of education and the standards of institutions will improve,” said Abdul Wahid, vice-chancellor of the Central University of Kashmir.
This is a great idea. The measures should be transparent so that the universities that are left out of it can aim to achieve those measures for future inclusion in that group. I hope some universities from Odisha would make into that list, but even if that does not happen, I think having those measures will enable the Odisha universities to argue for more funding and improving themselves.
See https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3214 for a ranking of Indian universities based on publication counts. That ranking should give an idea of which universities stand a good chance of achieving Navaratna status.
For the future, there should be a way for additional universities to get Navaratna status. That will encourage the universities that do not get the status in the first round to improve themselves. It will also encourage consolidation and creation of more wholesome universities that have engineering colleges and medical colleges as their components.
Entry Filed under: Learning from others,Navaratna Universities,Ranking
5 Writeup
1. Ashis | October 5th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
We should expect at least one university from Odisha in the list. But the current bunch of universities are lacking in every front and not sure whether they can pass all the criteria set like research output, patents, publications, sponsored projects, research grants received blah blah blah.
2. Umesh | October 5th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
I will be happy if not a single university in Odisha gets this hnour
a) They dont deserve it.
b) IIT-BBSR is too young.
c) The well-entrenched bureaucracy will gloat about it without working to improve educational standards in the state.
3. Purna Mishra | October 9th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Why we want a university from Orissa to get this status? We could look at Utkal and Ravenshaw universities. They have been taken over by goondas. In the name of East Hostel they have done everything to downgrade Ravenshaw university to the status of a bihari university.
Out of all these mess, somehow Sambalpur university is at least still a place of learning.
None of these universities from Orissa deserve to be in the top 25 list.
When will we grow up an think we are Indian before we are Oriya, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, etc etc speaking people.
4. mihir | October 11th, 2010 at 11:30 am
only we are keeping our good education system in paper and pen. still our university are far behind to follow a good education system. There is no single university in Odisha who followed UGC standard. Even some univesity are running without single Building and proper staff.some days back some students who were passing from Bput, Rourkela given interview in Honda motorcycle ,gurgaon .Company HR asked the students where university is located ? HR is doubt ,either university is recognitiono or not ? They are surprised when they gone through Bput web side . They are unabled to get the proper data what they want .see what is laughing situation faced by these students !!
5. mihir | October 12th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
First we should clean our house then we should show our fingers to others. Last couble of months we all are giving negative comments to VC of central tribal university koraput for running their office at bbsr. but same case happened with BPUT. why we are not opened our mouth in this case ? we are only show our fingers to others rather reverse to us. Our peoples attitude and our system is totallly base on dirty politics.First we shoud drop out this politics and politics leaders in our education ststem.