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.

 

Internationalisation on the table

While internationalisation is the newest buzz word in academic circles around the world, education institutions face different challenges when trying to make their mark in the globalised world.

Institutions in the South Asian region have similar opportunities and challenges but there is currently no regional initiative at the higher education level that focuses on collaboration. There are very few examples of institutions sharing their experiences with each other on how they are meeting the demographic challenge; what is working; what is failing and working together to do what needs to be done.

Britain’s Anglia Ruskin University hosted a round table in Delhi recently to discuss “Internationalisation and its impact on student experiences.” The initiative was part of the British university’s continued focus and commitment to South Asia.

Policy makers and senior academics from universities in the Asian sub continent (India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) participated in the discussion, which ended up as a lively, interactive exchange of ideas and strategies that would help participating varsities collaborate with each other and promote internationalisation at their campuses.

Participants included Professor Michael Thorne, Vice Chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University; Professor K S Rangappa, Vice-Chancellor, University of Mysore; Dr Rajan Welukar, Vice-Chancellor, University of Mumbai; Dr G James Pitchai, Vice-Chancellor, Bharathiar University; Professor Erinjery Joseph James, Karunya University; Major General Milinda Peiris, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Colombo; Professor Abdus Sattar, NorthSouthUniversity, Bangladesh; Professor Rahman, Daffodil International University, Bangladesh; Dr Prem Nair, Amrita University; Dr Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhyay, Pro Vice Chancellor, Calcutta University; Professor SH Pawar, Vice-Chancellor, DY Patil University, Kolhapur; and Sangeet Jaura, Associate Vice President, Chitkara University.

Academics at the round table: Collaboration on the cards

In India for instance, collaboration between universities and education institutions for research, teacher mobility, student mobility for research, joint degrees, and academic exchanges through partnerships and collaboration is prominent on the Government’s agenda. Indian universities are promoting research collaborations with foreign universities and this trend is going to continue to grow in the future. The Indian Government has been prioritising resources in favour of joint research collaborations and has increased allocations to research councils.

The round table in progress

However India hasn’t had much of a success in the race to be an education hub unlike Singapore, Malaysia and Dubai. Sri Lanka on the other hand has a focused plan to attract foreign investment in the higher education sector – an initiative

which has strong government support.

With the participating universities promising to work with each other at the round table, their internationalisation strategies and efforts should get the much-needed shot in the arm.

According to Anglia Ruskin academics, progress from the round table will be monitored and reviewed for the next one to be held in 2014.