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.

 

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Foreign students heading back to Australia says government report

Australia may soon be reclaiming its title as a popular education destination for foreign students, according to an article published in the The Australian newspaper. The article refers to a report released by the Australian government’s new International Education Advisory Council which says the country will host 520,000 international students by 2020, an increase from the current 402,000 in the country.

AUSTRALIA: BACK IN FAVOUR

About 80 per cent will be from Asia and they will bring in $19.1 billion into the economy.

Despite the upbeat projections, the numbers still won’t reach the ones the country achieved in 2009, when 630,700 foreign students reached campuses across Australia.

Tertiary Minister Chris Bowen said interest in studying here was already up, with an increase in higher education visas applicants in the last six months of 2012. Actual student numbers are predicted to rise next year.

Released by Bowen at a Universities Australia conference in Canberra, the report foresees a "new era of sustainable international education growth'' after the "unsustainable increases'' in the VET sector between 2006 and 2009.

Students and academic researchers are not permanent migrants: Universities UK

The British government’s immigration policies aimed at preventing student visa abuse at bogus colleges has resulted in decreasing numbers of foreign students, particularly those from countries such as India, Pakistan and China. The country’s higher education sector has been voicing concerns about the long-terms effects of the government’s strict visa regime on a market that is now worth in excess of £5 billion.

Eric Thomas: contentious debate

At a recent debate organized by higher education action group, Universities UK, university chiefs were unanimous about the fact that the image of Britain as a leading international education destination had taken a beating in the light of the government’s visa regulations.

Professor Eric Thomas, President, Universities UK said: “Migration is a significant issue and we are behind the government in stopping student visa abuse. However, there is clearly a conflict between government policy and the higher education sector’s ability to compete in the international market.” Thomas revealed that while UK’s market share in the international education market dropped from 10.8 per cent in 2000 to 9.9 per cent in 2009, biggest competitors have increased their market share. He also added that there have been reductions in student numbers from the Indian subcontinent.

“Students and academic researchers are not permanent migrants,” stated Thomas. “They come here to study and then, by and large, they leave.”

Professor Julia King, Vice-Chancellor, Aston University revealed that the University had witnessed a 39 per cent decline in applications from India. Birmingham’s local economy (food, clothing and entertainment) had also suffered a loss in revenues. King added that with a change in the post-study work visa regulations, graduates in disciplines such as pharmacy, engineering and business had been affected severely.

Glyn Williams, Head of Migration Policy, Home Office defended his government saying that “student migration is here with us and here to stay and no government is going to ignore that.”

“The more we debate, the more the adverse effect of the government policy will reverberate throughout the world,” Williams added.

Keith Vaz: crusader?

Rt.Hon Keith Vaz MP, Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, focused on how public perception of Britain as a popular overseas education destination in important student markets such as India had taken a beating, especially with the recent deaths and Indian media’s attention on these tragic events. Vaz pointed out that Britain was being viewed as an unwelcoming place and many Indian middle-class families, who could afford an overseas education, were choosing to send their children to countries such as the United States instead.

Vaz was openly critical of the UK Border Agency (UKBA), border control agency of the British Government. He appealed to university representatives to lobby with the Foreign Office, the Government’s Business Department and No 10 rather than the Home Office. “These departments understand the benefits that foreign students bring to our economy,” added Vaz, himself a first generation immigrant. Vaz was born in Yemen from parents born in India.

Top varsities or bottom feeders?

In an article published in an US-based education website recently, Philip Altbach wrote “India is still debating legislation to open the door to foreign higher education institutions. It is unlikely, despite smiling university presidents and copious amounts of goodwill, that America’s top universities are going to invest heavily in India, even if the doors are open. More likely, bottom feeders will slither into the country.” Altbach is Monan Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College in the United States.

Nothing short of a sad indictment given the earlier anticipation surrounding the Foreign Education Providers Bill in India and the entry of “world class” varsities to the country. A year ago, I had written an article for QS TopMBA on foreign b-schools that were keen on setting up offshore campuses in India once the proposed bill became a regulation. University representatives of b-schools in North America and Europe were very excited about the new regulation that was being planned. There was a flurry of activity. Land was being acquired, campuses planned.

Canada’s Schulich School of Business was one such institute. Schulich is setting up a campus at Hyderabad in partnership with the city’s GMR group. “The GMR Campus of the Schulich School of Business will be a mirror image of Schulich’s Toronto campus, with first-rate facilities, international faculty and an internationally-focused curriculum,” said Schulich Dean Dezsö J Horváth. “We will attract the best and the brightest students from India and abroad and prepare them for global careers in India and elsewhere in the world.” US-based Georgia Tech was also scouting around for locations in Hyderabad for a b-school in collaboration with Infosys.

Faculty of top Indian b-schools such as the Indian Institutes of Management were upbeat about the competition. Professor Sougata Ray, Dean, Programme Initiatives, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC), noted, “The bill is certainly a welcome move as there is a great demand for quality management education in India. Large numbers of students do not get admitted to the IIMs and end up spending huge sums of money going abroad. By allowing foreign varsities into India, these students will now get a chance to study at a good institute.”

Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, was also optimistic. “We have always believed that the best public policy for improving educational institutions is to enable and encourage competition. The introduction of this bill allowing foreign institutions into India seems to be a step in the right direction. There is a large pool of bright young students whose aspirations have been limited by the lack of right opportunities. We need several high quality educational institutions to meet this demand.”

So what changed over the course of the year? Could it be the delay in getting the bill cleared? Or the mixed signals from the government? Or protests from private education providers in various parts of the country.

In a report released recently by the US-based Institute of International Education (IIE), US institutions are being advised that bureaucracy may present a significant challenge to setting up study abroad programs in India and building partnerships with Indian institutions. The report says that “legislation to alleviate this has been introduced but has an uncertain future.”

“Given the delay of the much anticipated Foreign Providers’ Bill in India, US institutions interested in initiating large-scale operations in India may want to focus on joint and dual degree programs in partnership with Indian institutions, rather than wait for future opportunities to establish brick-and-mortar branch campuses in India, which may also be prohibitively expensive to launch.”

One wonders whether it is just a case of US universities getting cold feet about setting up offshore campuses in India and therefore, diluting their brand? One will just have to wait (for the Bill to get cleared) and watch ….

India and China are top sources of foreign students in Britain: Universities UK

India is the source of the highest number of post-graduate students in the United Kingdom opting for “taught” courses. However, Indian students shy away from postgraduate research courses that involve a research component with an opportunity to pursue a research project.

A report published by higher education action group, Universities UK, throws up some interesting facts such as these. The report titled Patterns and trends in UK higher education examines key trends in education over the last decade, from 2000/01 to 2009/10.

Among other things, the report tracks the rise of student numbers, the changing popularity of different subject areas, and a notable shift in the funding regime. It also demonstrates how higher education institutions continue to make a large contribution to civil society and the economy in the UK.

Key findings from the report include:

• UK higher education institutions together educate some 2.5 million students annually. The last 10 years has seen significant expansion, with a 28 per cent increase in student numbers from all domiciles.

• One of the main trends over the last 10 years has been the success of UK higher education institutions in attracting international students. Since 2000/01, the number of non-EU students has more than doubled, with an increase of 11.7 per cent in the last year.

• UK higher education institutions now educate over 400,000 students from outside the UK, making the higher education sector one of the most important export earners for the UK economy.

• As in previous years female students studying higher education at UK higher education institutions remain in the majority, accounting for 56.6 per cent of all students in 2009/10.

• Since 2000/01, full-time postgraduate numbers have increased by 73.1 per cent compared with an increase of 28.5 per cent for full-time undergraduates over the same period. This is partly due to the rate of increase in non-UK students, who tend to study at postgraduate level.

• Employment rates six months after graduation remain high across the sector, with 80 per cent of institutions showing between 86 per cent and 94 per cent of their students recorded as in employment or further study six months after graduation.