14 innovation universities in pipeline

Updated on: Tuesday, June 15, 2010

14 innovation universities along the lines of Harvard and Oxford and one of these institutions will come up near Mysore. During the recent US visit of Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, the MIT has expressed keenness to set up a specialised institution for energy studies.

A number of universities like Stanford might come forward to lend their expertise in setting up some of these institutions. A number of such initiatives are likely to be announced during US President Barack Obama’s visit to India in early November. India and the US had come together to establish world class institutions like IIT-Kanpur 50 years ago. Each innovation university would focus on one area or problem of significance to India. It would also build an ecosystem of research and teaching around different related disciplines and fields of study, which would be relevant thereto and search for solutions that would be globally valid and in the process develop education at Under Graduate and higher levels.

Such areas of relevance could be challenges of urbanisation, environmental sustainability in relation to growth and progress of life on earth or public health. Such institutions would also have the freedom to formulate their own policies for admissions to programmes and courses of study as they would be devised as “autonomous entities with no regulation from outside.”

Thus the innovation universities would frame their own rules on academics and the qualifications needed for teaching positions, and get to decide their own fees, curriculum and pedagogy. The funds spent on research or teaching would be kept out of the purview of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

The institutions would be free to define their faculty appointment criteria and also salary structure. They could also appoint faculty by invitation (regardless of age or experience) based on the recommendations of an internal search committee.

14 innovation universities in pipeline

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