The Union Government had accorded Institution of Eminence (IoE) status to the University of Hyderabad (UoH) in September 2019, in recognition of its standing, ability and potential to move into the league of the world’s best institutions The status of the Institution of Eminence (IoE) and the execution of programmes under the initiative has made a qualitative difference to the University of Hyderabad.
The University has been implementing various programmes under the IoE for more than three years and it is a project where spending is entirely goal oriented and results oriented The IoE tagline ‘national needs, global standards’ is geared towards academic, financial and administrative support for all its stakeholders, faculty, students and non-teaching staff. As part of it, UoH has earmarked special funds for implementing various initiatives.
The university views IoE as a good opportunity in its history to leverage its existing reputation, practices and services to catapult itself into the best and highest leagues globally. The University has spent about ₹450 crore so far on achieving IoE goals.
The objectives of UoH in implementing IoE include sprucing up of infrastructure, securing high-end equipment for various laboratories of different departments, building new infrastructure and encouraging research projects of the faculty by extending funds.
Most of the infrastructure and lab equipment are obsolete. Similarly, there is a need to encourage research projects of the faculty and their exposure to create an ecosystem of innovation, entrepreneurship and translational research among the students and faculty members through start-ups and public-private partnerships.
A substantial part of IoE funds spent so far went into creation of new infrastructure including hostel, upgrading of equipment and research support. The buildings under construction include the Interdisciplinary Research Centre (photograph given below) to house central facilities, enable conferences, innovation and entrepreneurship; human resource development centre, 50 room guest house, 400-seater boys and girls hostel (each), administration building. The restoration of the Golden Threshold building has been undertaken and is expected to be completed shortly.
The central facilities being established include an analytical Transmission Electron microscope, focused ion beam- scanning electron microscope, micro-xray diffractometer, xray photoelectron spectrometer, optical microscopy platforms, physical property measurement system etc.
More than 250 faculty members out of the total faculty strength of 400 have been funded through the five research calls and professional development funds. Uniquely, one of the research calls was aimed at funding faculty members belonging to the SC/ST/Women/PwD categories. Two other schemes aimed at encouraging translational research and greater engagement with the industry called as inter-institutional research clusters and public-private partnerships are also ongoing. The initiative is helping in facilitating exposure of UoH faculty to their international counterparts, almost 500 faculty members and PhD scholars have received the ₹1 lakh travel assistance to attend seminars and conferences abroad if abstracts/research papers accepted in foreign countries have been sanctioned. The stakeholders have travelled to countries such as USA, UK, France, Germany, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Romania, Hong Kong, Spain etc. Some representative photographs illustrate the diversity of countries travelled.
In addition, over the last two years, close to 180 non-NET PhD scholars have received the publication based performance incentive of Rs. 12,000/- per month in recognition of a publication in a UGC-CARE listed journal. This award is in addition to the non-NET fellowship of Rs. 8,000/-. They also receive an additional Rs. 5,000/- per month for the second publication. have been benefited so far by way of IoE research funding so far. The topper in a semester in a PG programme also receives an award of Rs.5,000/- along with a certificate. About 75 post-doctoral research fellows have also been appointed under the IoE programme.
The IoE programme has also funded more than 100 national and international conferences on campus, short-term visits of 5 internationally eminent IoE-Chair Professors (photographs are given below), several skill development programmes and development of e-learning resources. Workshops and Distinguished Lectures on administrative best practices, basic skills, upskilling and re-training of administrative, financial and other staff have been organized. It is also proposed to sanctions funds to officers to visit other institutions and gain experience on best practices to smooth and efficient functioning of an institution like the University of Hyderabad.
As part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the University of Hyderabad more than 30 Distinguished Lectures have been funded. A snapshot of these lectures is presented below
The IoE programme has also funded the repair, renovation and upgrade of all major buildings, hostels, faculty quarters, research and teaching facilities.
The impact of the Institution of eminence status is being felt slowly, especially in terms of quantity and quality of research publications. The average number of publications per faculty member has increased from 1-1.5 to almost 3 per faculty per year with about 30% of these publications being in the Q1 journals. This is evident from the graph shown above which clearly illustrates this point. The number of patents granted and extramural funding being received by faculty members is also increasing.
As the Vice Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad, Prof. B.J. Rao said recently about the impact of the IoE status and initiatives being taken: “There has been visible positive impact already. I also believe that there will be a greater impact in the long term even after I leave the system.”