Prakash Javadekar announces new scheme for quality institutions in the country

Jawaharlal Nehru University and University of Hyderabad are the two Central institutions that will be granted the highest autonomy as Category-1 institutions under the new scheme of higher autonomy for quality institutions.

This was announced on Tuesday by Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar.

Banaras Hindu University, Aligarh Muslim University and the English and Foreign Languages University, Telangana, are in Category-II, which too enjoys high autonomy.

As per UGC’s February 2018 notification on graded autonomy, quality institutions will get the freedom to start their own courses, departments, centres and schools, provided they generate their own funds rather than demand these from the government.

Institutions having a National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) score of 3.5 and above, out of 4, are in Category-1, and those with a NAAC score of 3.26 to 3.5 are in Category-2.

JNU has the highest NAAC score of 3.77 among Central universities and University of Hyderabad is next with 3.72.

Among state universities, Jadavpur University, Savitribai Phule Pune University and Osmania University, Hyderabad are in Category-1 and University of Mysore, Anna University, Chennai, and Punjab University, Chandigarh are in Category-2.

Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, is also in Category-1 with a high NAAC score of 3.89.

Among private universities, OP Jindal Global University, Sonepat, and Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Petroleum University, Gandhinagar, are the only ones to make it to category-II.

Higher salaries

These institutions will also be permitted to hire faculty at packages higher than the UGC scale if they are able to raise resources for the extra payment. They have also been given the freedom to hire foreign faculty members who have taught in any of the top 500 institutions of the world on contract basis.