India’s quest for world-class universities and attracting global talent of students and faculty. How feasible is it to attract AND retain global talent?
India releases list of 20 institutions — 10 private and 10 public — for the coveted status of “Institutions of Eminence.”
UGC, Government of India Guidelines 2017 state
“To provide an enabling regulatory architecture to ten public and ten private Higher Educational lnstitutions to emerge as world-class Teaching and Research lnstitutions.”
“iii) lt should have a good proportion of foreign or foreign qualified faculty. lnstitutions which succeed in mobilizing a broadly diverse national and international academic staff are likely to maximise knowledge capacity. Foreign / Foreign qualified faculty means:
a. Any faculty of non lndian citizenship. or
b. Any lndian citizen who has spent considerable time in academics in a foreign country, with his academic qualification /experience from top 500 lnstitutions figuring in a reputed world ranking.
iv) . There should be a reasonably good mix of domestic and foreign students.”
India is the second largest source of international students and future trends indicate continued growth momentum of students aspiring to study overseas. However, attracting international students and global faculty is a challenge of different magnitude. Eight years ago I wrote in Times Higher Ed “It is easy to point to the lack of resources – money and time – needed to build such institutions. More importantly, however, Indian higher education fails to fully recognise the value of the most essential resource in such an endeavour, namely talent. An awareness of the importance of attracting the best talent – students, faculty and administrators – in delivering quality is sorely missing.” Will it be different this time?
| Public | Private |
| Anna University, Chennai | Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Bangalore |
| BHU, Varanasi | Bharti (Satya Bharti Foundation), Delhi |
| Delhi University | BITS Pilani, Rajasthan |
| IISC Bangalore | Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi |
| IIT Bombay | Jio Institute (Reliance Foundation), Maha. |
| IIT Delhi | Kalinga Instt. of Industrial Tech., Bhubaneswar |
| IIT Kharagpur | Manipal Academy of Higher Education |
| IIT Madras | O.P Jindal University, Haryana |
| Jadavpur University, Kolkata | Shiv Nadar University, Uttar Pradesh |
| University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad | VIT Vellore,Tamil Nadu |