Question : Inter University Collaboration

(a) whether steps have been taken by the Ministry to improve the international rankings of Indian Educational Institutions and if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether the Government has also formulated any scheme to encourage signing agreement by Indian universities with foreign education institutions, if so, the details thereof;

(c) the steps taken by the Government to encourage the collaboration of private and Government universities in research activities;

(d) whether the teachers/scholars engaged in research works are being provided incentives and the measures being taken to include the private sector in research projects;

(e) the position of the country with regards to the publication of research work done by the Universities during the last three years; and

(f) whether any proposal to set up effective monitoring mechanism in this regard is under consideration of the Government and if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

(DR. MAHENDRA NATH PANDEY)

(a):In order to improve the international rankings of Indian educational institutions, the Ministry has formulated a scheme for promoting the institutions of eminence under which (10) public and (10) private institutions would be selected for providing regulatory liberalisation and financial support (only case of public institutions). Apart from that, special projects have been prepared by (7) Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Science for promotion of research and infrastructure for improving their rankings. Under this collaborative research, joint supervision of PhDs with foreign Universities are proposed.

In order to provide impetus to research, special interventions like IMPRINT and Uchhatar Avishkar Yojna (UAY) are being implemented. In UAY, the research projects are implemented in collaboration with the industry.

(b): University Grants Commission (UGC) has notified UGC (Promotion and Maintenance of Standards of Academic Collaboration between Indian and Foreign Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2016 which allow Indian institutions to enter into twining arrangement with foreign institutions as a way of bringing in cutting edge and quality education. AICTE has set norms for regulating collaboration and twining program between Indian and Foreign University/Institutions in the field of Technical Education Research and Training. IIT Council has also approved proposal to implement a host of measures for building world class laboratories, collective research and global outreach for improving the rankings of IITs.

(c) to (f): To encourage private as well as public sector to work in tandem with universities in the field of research, AICTE is implementing the schemes namely Research Promotion Scheme (RPS),Quality Improvement Programme (QIP),Research Park (RP), INAE-Teachers Research Fellowship (TRF). Further, the M.Tech. stipend for GATE qualified students has been enhanced to Rs. 12,400 per month for incentivising the research programmes.

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