Lok Sabha Question No. 1048 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-12-17
Subject: Ranking of Educational Institutes
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: RAMESH POKHRIYAL NISHANK

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. †1048 TO BE ANSWERED ON 17.12.2018

## Ranking of Educational Institutes

## †1048. Dr. RAMESH POKHRIYAL 'NISHANK':

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) the special efforts put in during the last 5 years to improve the International ranking of the Indian Educational Institutes;
- (b) whether  the  Government  has  formulated  any  policy  to  promote  the  signing  of agreements with foreign educational institutes;
- (c) if so, the details thereof;
- (d) the steps taken by the Government to promote research in private and public sectors in close association with Universities; and
- (e) the status of India in getting International level research work published in the Indian Universities?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (DR. SATYA PAL SINGH)

(a): Government of India is very keen to improve the global standards/ International ranking of the Indian Higher Education Institutions. In order to improve quality of Indian universities and institutes and thereby bringing them at par with the leading world universities, the Central Government  has  launched  several  initiatives  viz.  National  Institutional  Ranking  Framework (NIRF), Impacting Research Innovation & Technology (IMPRINT), Uchhtar Avishkar Yojana (UAY) and Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) in the field of education for the qualitative development of education in the country. Under the NIRF, Educational Institutions are  ranked  by  an  independent  ranking  agency  on  the  basis  of  objective  criteria.  Under  the IMPRINT, the Government has taken the  initiative  to  address  major  engineering  challenges related to 10 socially relevant domains  through the collaborative efforts of the IITs and Indian Institute of Science (IISc). The objectives of UAY scheme are to promote innovation in IITs, addressing issues of manufacturing industries; to spur innovative mindset; to co-ordinate action between  academia  &  industry  and  to  strengthen  labs  &  research  facilities.  GIAN  scheme facilitates  partnership  between  Higher  Educational  Institutions  of  the  country  and  other countries in order to tap international talent pool of scientists and entrepreneurs. Study Webs of

Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) and SWAYAM PRABHA have also been  launched  by  the  Central  Government,  which  are  aimed  at  providing  high  quality educational  programmes  through  digital  means.  SWAYAM  will  provide  one  integrated platform for online courses. SWAYAM ensures 3 As Anytime, Anywhere, Anyone learning. The objective is to ensure that the every student in our country has access to the best quality higher  education  at  the  affordable  cost.  Reputed  academicians  from  hundreds  of  institutions throughout  the  country  are  involved  in  developing  &  delivering  MOOCs  (Massive  Open Online Courses ) through SWAYAM in almost all disciplines from senior schooling to Post Graduation wherein it is intended to develop world class content. UGC and AICTE have issued 'Credit  Framework  for  online  learning  courses  through  SWAYAM,  Regulation'  creating enabling framework for transfer of credits upto 20 % for the students who use SWAYAM for their academics. SWAYAM PRABHA is a bouquet of 32 dedicated high quality educational channels on DTH platform which is available through free dish of Doordarshan. Through these channels anyone in any part of the country can view the lectures by the best teachers without internet. It is also available on YouTube as archival data.

The  University  Grants  Commission  (UGC)  also  undertakes  maintenance  of  standards  in teaching,  research  and  quality  assurance  in  Universities,  Deemed  to  be  Universities  and Colleges through framing regulations, schemes and disbursing grants to the eligible institutions.

Recently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has granted autonomy to 76 Educational Institutions  (as  per  data  up  to  26.07.2018)  which  have  maintained  high  academic  standards. UGC has categorized Universities into three categories: Category-I, Category-II, and CategoryIII. Universities coming under Category-I and Category-II may hire, without approval of UGC, foreign faculty upto twenty percent over and above of their sanctioned faculty strength. They shall also be free to admit foreign students on merit, subject to a maximum of twenty percent over and above of the strength of their approved domestic students.

Besides  these,  one  of  the  initiatives  of  Ministry  of  Human  Resource  Development  is  the declaration of Educational Institutions as lnstitutions of Eminence (IoE) to provide world class education to the Indian Students within the country. Six such institutions have been recently accredited the status of IoE by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. It is expected that the above selected Institutions will come up in top 500 of the world ranking in 10 years and in top 100 of the world ranking eventually. To achieve the top world ranking, there is a provision of greater autonomy i.e. to admit foreign students up to 30% of admitted students; to recruit  foreign  faculty  upto  25%  of  faculty  strength;  to  offer  online  courses  upto  20%  of  its programmes;  to  enter  into  academic  collaboration  with  top  500  in  the  world  ranking Institutions without permission of University Grants Commission; free to fix and charge fees from foreign students without restriction; flexibility of course structure in terms of number of credit  hours  and  years  to  take  a  degree;  complete  flexibility  in  fixing  of  curriculum  and syllabus, etc.

(b) and (c): Indian Higher Educational Institutions are autonomous in nature and are free to enter into agreements with foreign universities at institutional level. The Government promotes this by not interfering in the process and encouraging the signing of such agreements subject to extant domestic laws in vogue and that it should not be detrimental to sovereignty and security of  the  country.  However,  UGC  has  recently  notified  UGC (Promotion  and  Maintenance  of Standards  of  Academic  Collaboration  between  Indian  and  Foreign  Educational  Institutions) Regulations, 2016 which would allow Indian institutions to enter into  twinning arrangement with foreign institutions as a way of bringing in cutting edge and quality education.

(d): It has been a constant endeavour of the Government of India to make India a research hub by way of launching several schemes/initiatives from time to time.

Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) aims at improving the research ecosystem of India's higher educational institutions by facilitating academic and research collaborations between Indian Institutions [overall top-100 or category-wise top-100 in  NIRF  (including  Institutions  of  Eminence    and  such  Private  Institutions  which  are recognized under 12(B) of UGC Act)] and the best institutions in the world (top-500 overall and top-200 subject-wise institutions listed in QS World University Ranking) from 28 selected nations  to  jointly  solve  problems  of  national  and  international  relevance.  This  involves supporting  600  joint  research  projects  facilitating  mobility  of  students/faculty  for  long  term research and teaching activities. More details are available on https://sparc.iitkgp.ac.in

IMPacting Research Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT) is a flagship national initiative of the Government, launched on November, 5, 2015, which aims at providing solutions to the most relevant engineering challenges and translating knowledge into viable technology in 10 selected  technology  domains,  viz.  health  care,  energy,  sustainable  habitat,  nano  technology hardware, water resources and river systems, advanced materials, Information and communication technology, manufacturing, security and defence, and environmental science and climate change. It is a pan IITs and IISc Joint Initiative seeking to develop a roadmap for research. 142 research projects at a total cost of Rs. 323.16 crore with joint funding by MHRD and various participating Ministries/Departments/Industry are currently under execution under IMPRINT-I. To realize this objective, MHRD and the Department of Science & Technology (DST) have jointly created a corpus of Rs.670 crore, which will act as a dedicated funding source  for  the  IMPRINT-II  projects.  In  of  first  call  of  proposals  under  IMPRINT-II,  122 projects at a total cost of Rs. 122 crore have been approved.

Uchhatar  Avishkar  Yojana  (UAY)  was  announced  on  October  6,  2015  with  a  view  to promoting  innovation  of  a  higher  order  that  directly  impacts  the  needs  of  the  Industry  and thereby  improves  the  competitive  edge  of  Indian  manufacturing.  The  project  envisages collaboration  between  the  academia  and  industry  -  within  or  outside  India.  The  funding pattern of the projects selected would be 25%  by Industry; 25%  by participating Department/Ministry; and 50% by MHRD. Currently, 87 projects at a total cost of Rs.265.59 crore with joint funding by MHRD, participating Ministries and Industry are currently under execution. In the second call of proposals, the Apex Committee of UAY in its meeting held on 21.11.2017 approved 65 projects at a cost of Rs.139.48 crore are under execution.

Under another scheme called Impactful Policy Research in Social Sciences (IMPRESS), 1500 research  projects  will  be  awarded  for  2  years  to  support  the  socialsciences  research  in  the higher educational institutions and to enable research to guide policy making.

(e): As per information provided by the UGC, Indian share of the overall world publications is about 4.06%. In the Management discipline, the share falls to about 2.43%. Nearly 67% of the scholarly output from India is represented in the NIRF evaluation. In fact, it can be safely concluded  that  this  would  be  close  to  (if  not  equal  to)  the  total  scholarly  output  from  the academic world from India. Research Publications of Eligible institutes (NIRF applicants) in Comparison to Total Research Publications of the World and India are as under:

| Discipline / Category   | No. of research publications   | No. of research publications   | No. of research publications   |
|-------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|                         | World (1)                      | India (2)                      | NIRF eligible institutes       |
| Overall (All)           | 8309449                        | 336978 4.06% of (1)            | 224577 66.64% of (2)           |
| Engineering             | 2469455                        | 151884 6.15% of (1)            | 112848 74.30% of (2)           |
| Management              | 111111                         | 2701 2.43% of (1)              | 1450 53.68% of (2)             |
| Pharmacy                | 203997                         | 10766 5.28% of (1)             | 3947 36.66% of (2)             |

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