Earlier this month, Jio Institute which exists only on paper received the ‘Institute of Eminence’ tag under the ‘Greenfield Institutes’ category by the HRD ministry. The clause 6.1 of the UGC Regulation 2017 provided for a greenfield project – Jio being one – to be considered under the category of Institutions of Eminence.
This was the only institute which, even though it only exists on paper, managed to get the IoE status. The credibility of this decision sparked a lot of controversies, and now, as per reports coming in, the Reliance Foundation has projected ₹100 crore earnings from around 1000 students coming in the first year.
On July 19, some reports came out with the details of the application that was sent to the central government to get this status.
Projected Income And Number Of Students
The projected income, in the first year, from 1000 students is ₹ 100 crore. There is a proposed deduction of ₹ 38 crores as part of scholarship waivers. This makes the per-student fees to come to around ₹ 6.2 lacs per annum.
There is a projected increase in student strength in the second year. The number of students in the second year is expected to be 2000, and they estimate revenue of ₹ 208 crores from tuition and hostel fees. From this revenue, the foundation has promised a waiver of ₹ 76 crores for exemplary students.
The expected number of students in the 15th year is 10,000, with net revenue of ₹ 1,502 crores.
In comparison, all four campuses of BITS collected a total revenue of ₹ 467 crores from 13,758 students, last year, which came around to ₹ 3.39 lacs per student, per annum.
Expenditure Proposal
The proposed expenditure for the first year is 154 crores out of which 93 staff salaries and benefits for faculty and staff. The Institute also claims it will hire teachers from top 500 global universities.
Number Of Seats And Courses Offered
The courses that are planned to be offered include; Natural Sciences, Engineering, Computer Science, Humanities, Management and Entrepreneurship, Law, Media and Journalism, Performing Arts, Sports Sciences and Urban Planning Architecture. There is a division on the number of seats offered for each of these courses as well. There will be 300 seats for Natural Sciences, 60 for Media and Journalism, 80 for Sports Sciences, 50 for Urban Planning and Architecture, 90 for Law, 200 for Humanities, 125 for Management and Entrepreneurship, 50 for Performing Arts and 250 for engineering and Computer Science.
Admission and Land
The admission process for the Jio Institute is expected to start by 2021. The institute is planned to be located on an 800-acre piece of land, in Karjat. The Nita Ambani-led reliance foundation has also promised ₹ 9500 crore funding towards this institution.
As reported by the Indian Express, scientist R A Mashelkar, who was reappointed as “national research professor” in 2016 and currently heads the National Innovation Foundation under the Department of Science and Technology, was pitched to the government committee as the Chancellor of Jio Institute. Dipak C Jain, the former director of Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration in Bangkok, was proposed to be the Vice-Chancellor.
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