Modi govt finds Jamia's performance for 2019-20 'outstanding'

After targetting Jamia students for the better part of the year over anti-CAA protests, Union HRD ministry finds the varsity's performance as 'outstanding'. The university had turned into a battlefield on December 15 as the police entered the campus to look for outsiders who were involved in incidents of violence.

New Delhi: An evaluation of central universities done by the HRD Ministry for the academic year 2019-20 found the performance of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), which was heavily targetted during the anti-CAA protest, outstanding.

According to reports, JMI secured 95.23 per cent in an overall assessment, as indicated in a letter sent to the university by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

The university had turned into a battlefield on December 15 as the police entered the campus to look for outsiders who were involved in incidents of violence and arson a few metres away from the educational institute during a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

The police have said they entered the campus to look for outsiders involved in the violence that erupted during an anti-CAA protest being held a few meters away from the university.

Read:Paintings, graffiti on walls of Jamia Millia Islamia against CAA, NRC

Vice-Chancellor Professor Najma Akhtar attributed the achievement to high-quality teaching, relevant and focused research and improved perception of the university. She hoped the university would improve its performance in the coming years.

Akhtar said the achievement is all the more significant because of the challenging time the university went through in the recent past.

Read:Jamia violence orchestrated by outsiders in garb of protest: Delhi police tells HC

With an objective to evaluate the performance of central universities (CUs) on select key parameters against set targets, all of them are required to sign a tripartite MoU with HRD Ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGC). JMI was the first university to sign the MoU in 2017.

Performance of universities is evaluated on parameters of student diversity and equity, faculty quality and strength, academic outcomes, research performance, outreach, governance, finance, national and international rankings and accreditation, and co-curricular and extra-curricular activities.

In the ministry's National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings announced last month, JMI was ranked 10th. In the 'Overall' category, the university was placed at the 16th position.

IITs, IIMs, IISc, other top technical institutions and universities are also included in the 'Overall' category.

(With inputs from PTI)