Govt dilutes UGC's power, to set up empowered panel

Diluting the University Grants Commission's (UGC) power, the government is set to put in place a panel of eminent personalities, which will take important education related decisions. The committee, which will be called the 'empowered committee', will constitute of educationists and scientists.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has decided to leave minimum powers to the UGC and run educational institutions on autonomy mode. In this task, the first step of the empowered committee would be to select 20 institutes of national eminence, 10 each in public and private sector, which will further compete for global rankings.

HRD Ministry's idea to set up 20 world-class institutions was cleared by the Cabinet on Wednesday; the bill is likely to be produced in Parliament in the coming week.

According to senior officials in the ministry, the panel of eminent persons will be chosen by the Cabinet Secretary, Higher Education Secretary, and the UGC Chairman. "The panel of eminent personalities will be decided by government officials and will constitute of academics, researchers, scientists, and people who have done good work in the field of education."

Only those institutions that are under top 50 ranks in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) will be allowed to apply.