A Committee of Experts headed by former chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami has been constituted by the University Grants Commission to assist in examining the applications of universities seeking the status of institution of eminence.

The committee constituted by the UGC chairman will make recommendations as per the regulations and guidelines that have been laid down for grant of eminent institution tag.

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While separate regulations and guidelines have been laid down in the public and private sector, the empowered expert committee will be examining applications of both public and private sector institutions.

Over a hundred institutions with a majority belonging to the public sector including several IITs have applied for getting the tag of institution of eminence.

The committee has three other members who are academics. They are Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemman Professor, Harvard Business School, Dr Pritam Singh, former director, MDI Gurugram and IIM, Lucknow, and Dr Renu Khator, Chancellor of Houston System.

In case of institutions in the public sector, the Committee of Experts will do its appraisal based on the documents submitted by the applicant as well as any other measure of demonstrated commitment to the cause of developing an institution of excellence.

According to the guidelines, it will continue to monitor and review the functioning of the institution till it is ranked among top 100 institutions in the world for two consecutive years.

In respect to private institutions, the functions of the Expert Committee include scrutinising and examining the application in detail, visiting the institution, holding discussions with its major stakeholders and making on the spot assessment of its academic viability to function as an institution adhering to the concept and ideals of an institution of eminence.

It will also judge the academic and research excellence of the institution based on the available records. It will also look into its financial viability.

It will give information to UGC on matters like performance of students who have graduated, research scholars registered for PhD, sponsored research projects completed and on-going research and research publications in journals.