Foreign universities in India: Looking a GIFT horse in the mouth?

GIFT City, Gujarat: pic courtesy: Jay Soni (Unsplash)

The stage is finally set for foreign universities establish campuses in India.
 
The University Grants Commission (UGC), has set up a committee that will facilitate their entry. According to reports in the media, the universities will be permitted to operate from GIFT city in Gandhinagar to offer post-graduate and executive programmes in financial services and technology. They will not have to follow domestic rules. Which indicates that local education regulators such as UGC and AICTE will not supervise them and they might be allowed to make and repatriate profit.
 
Now all of this sounds very promising and if it does come through, it will be a huge step in the right direction. Over the years, attempts to open up India’s higher education space to international universities have been a series of hits and misses. In 1995, the then government drafted the Foreign Education Bill which was ultimately shelved. In 2006, there was another bid to allow foreign universities into India but the draft law was not approved. Finally, in 2010 the UPA-2 government brought the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill which ultimately lapsed in 2014 when the political regime changed.
 
International colleges and universities have been collaborating with Indian educational institutions since the early 1990s when government regulations did not, allow foreign institutes to set up campuses in India or, recognize foreign degrees awarded in India. Collaborations were inked to help foreign institutes market their programs in India through a local partner, participate in student and faculty exchanges as well as lend their expertise. Collaborations ranged from twinning agreements, joint faculty and staff exchange programs to support in curriculum design and pedagogy. 
 
So what does the new mandate mean for foreign universities keen to set foot into the Indian market?

“This will open new opportunities for Indian universities for collaborative research in emerging areas such as finance and technology. To facilitate such collaborations, UGC will work with Indian universities and provide the necessary assistance,” UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar told Moneycontrol.
 
Foreign universities opening campuses will boost internationalisation and exchange of students and faculty. The National Education Policy 2020 gives a green signal to foreign universities interested in setting up shop in India and domestic institutes to establish campuses abroad. Through all this, the government hopes to reduce the foreign exchange outflow by bringing overseas education to India.
 
But the entire study abroad experience for Indian students involves living in a foreign country. Will the GIFT experience be able to provide that? 
 
Only time will tell.

 

Dual degrees with world's top 500 varsities

In a move to regulate the country's higher education sector,  the University Grants Commission has approved new regulations governing foreign university partnerships, barring entry to all but the top 500 globally-ranked universities. In order to be eligible to offer joint degrees or other twinning programmes, foreign universities must be listed among the top 500 in the Times Higher Education or Shanghai Jiaotong University world rankings, while Indian universities must have received the highest grade from the National Assessmentand Accreditation Council or the National Board of Accreditation. Universities with existing partnerships will be allowed six months to comply with the new regulations, or face penalties.

While the government’s move to regulate partnerships by allowing access to elite institutions should be lauded, there are many non-elite institutions worldwide that offer a diverse range of high-quality programmes. The new regulations would deprive Indian students from accessing those programmes.

Ombudsman for higher education institutions

More news from HRD Minister Kapil Sibal’s chamber.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development will put in place a grievance redressal mechanism for students and applicants for admission in higher educational institutions. The framework will be implemented in all central universities, IITs, IIMs, NITS, IIITs, private and government-run deemed universities and all higher educational institutions under various Central government ministries.

Regulatory bodies such as the University Grants Commission, All India Council for Technical Education and National Council for TeacherEducation would ask educational institutions to set up grievance redressal mechanisms.

KAPIL SIBAL: SETTING STANDARDS?

As part of the initiative, each institute would be required to appoint an ombudsman who would be a person with judicial or legal experience. In case the grievance relates to SCs/STs/OBCs or minorities, the ombudsman can co-opt a person of eminence from the weaker section to assist him in taking a decision. The institute would have to appoint him from a panel suggested by the affiliating university in case of technical and management institutions and the Central Government in case of deemed universities. “Non-compliance can lead to withdrawal of recognition,” Sibal states.

Applicants for admission and students can apply to the ombudsman for redressal of grievances and s/he would have to give the order within a month. According to Sibal, students have several grievances at the time of applying for admission that needs immediate redressal. Sibal indicated that even the Parliamentary standing committee, in its report on the bill to prohibit and punish unfair practices, had recommended setting up of grievance redressal frameworks.

A new bill in town

Another Bill. As if we did not have enough bills already!

The newest one – the Higher Education and Research Bill 2011 seeks to establish the National Commission on Higher Education and Research (NCHER), an overarching regulatory body for university education including vocational, technical, professional and medical education.

The Bill will promote autonomy of higher education and innovation and provide for comprehensive and integrated growth of higher education and research keeping in view the global standards of educational and research practices, for which it will establish the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER).

The NCHER will facilitate determination, coordination, maintenance and continued enhancement of standards of higher education and research other than agricultural education and matters pertaining to minimum standard of medical education as are the subject of proposed National Commission on Human Resources in Health (NCHRH).

So far so good.

The existing regulatory bodies including the University Grants Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education will subsequently be scrapped.

All that’s left now is to wait for this and all the others (reportedly 11) to be cleared. Some backlog indeed!