Foreign education bill can be a prescription drug
Foreign education bill can be a prescription drug
Dr.T.P.Sethumadhavan
Foreign education bill can create spectacular growth in the higher education and research sector of the country. Indian students can easily access the cutting edge technologies at an affordable cost is one of the major impacts of this bill.
Recent analysis reveals that in 2008-09, around 140 Indian institutions and 156 foreign education providers were involved in academic collaborations. Of which 90 institutions have university status and 20 have college status. Other institutions were for skill development programmes. Total number of collaborations was 225 having more than one programme delivery, the total number was 635. Highest numbers of collaborations were in management studies which were around 26 per cent. Engineering and technology which comes around 22 per cent rank second. Next comes Hotel and Hospitality management which is nearly 20 per cent. Of the 225 existing collaborations, 83 are with educational institutions from Britain, followed by 79 from the US. It is estimated that more than 1.5lakh students from India are studying abroad. If the average expenditure on fees and maintenance is calculated to be at $20000per student per year, it may come around $3 billion a year.
The Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations, Maintenance of Quality and Prevention of Commercialization) Bill will allow foreign universities to invest at least 51 per cent of the total capital expenditure needed to establish the institute in India. Moreover they have to spend 3/4th of the profit earned within the country itself. Such institutes will be granted deemed university status under Section 3 of the Universities Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956. This Bill aims to regulate the entry, operation and maintenance of quality assurance and prevention of commercialization by foreign educational institutions, besides protecting the interest of the student community from sub-standard operators. The Bill will help in bringing in investment in the education sector and also check the flow of Indians to study abroad thus it will increase the standard of education and reverse the flow of faculty. Thus brain drain can be effectively controlled.
Recently a delegation of Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), which represents America's top universities comprising universities of Chicago, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State University, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Pennsylvania State, Purdue and Wisconsin-Madison has evinced interest in collaborating with Indian universities. The CIC is known for quality research and its advanced research laboratories.
There are many foreign universities offering degree courses in India in partnership with local universities. Once the Bill is passed, foreign universities will be able to offer independent degrees, without the need to tie up with a local university. As far as undergraduate courses are concerned, cost of education is cheap in the country. Thus there is no need for any apprehension that foreign universities will target only undergraduate students. But they target towards graduate and doctoral programmes. Foreign universities operating in India will allow students who cannot afford to travel abroad to get the same degree in India. To that extent, it will cater to a different category of students.
If foreign universities start operating in India, it will give students a choice and expand higher education offerings in India. There is a huge gap in the demand and supply in higher education and foreign universities will fill some part of this gap. Thus Students in India will get a far better choice and competitive pressures will also improve the quality of the present education providers in India.
Dr.T.P.Sethumadhavan
Foreign education bill can create spectacular growth in the higher education and research sector of the country. Indian students can easily access the cutting edge technologies at an affordable cost is one of the major impacts of this bill.
Recent analysis reveals that in 2008-09, around 140 Indian institutions and 156 foreign education providers were involved in academic collaborations. Of which 90 institutions have university status and 20 have college status. Other institutions were for skill development programmes. Total number of collaborations was 225 having more than one programme delivery, the total number was 635. Highest numbers of collaborations were in management studies which were around 26 per cent. Engineering and technology which comes around 22 per cent rank second. Next comes Hotel and Hospitality management which is nearly 20 per cent. Of the 225 existing collaborations, 83 are with educational institutions from Britain, followed by 79 from the US. It is estimated that more than 1.5lakh students from India are studying abroad. If the average expenditure on fees and maintenance is calculated to be at $20000per student per year, it may come around $3 billion a year.
The Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations, Maintenance of Quality and Prevention of Commercialization) Bill will allow foreign universities to invest at least 51 per cent of the total capital expenditure needed to establish the institute in India. Moreover they have to spend 3/4th of the profit earned within the country itself. Such institutes will be granted deemed university status under Section 3 of the Universities Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956. This Bill aims to regulate the entry, operation and maintenance of quality assurance and prevention of commercialization by foreign educational institutions, besides protecting the interest of the student community from sub-standard operators. The Bill will help in bringing in investment in the education sector and also check the flow of Indians to study abroad thus it will increase the standard of education and reverse the flow of faculty. Thus brain drain can be effectively controlled.
Recently a delegation of Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), which represents America's top universities comprising universities of Chicago, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State University, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Pennsylvania State, Purdue and Wisconsin-Madison has evinced interest in collaborating with Indian universities. The CIC is known for quality research and its advanced research laboratories.
There are many foreign universities offering degree courses in India in partnership with local universities. Once the Bill is passed, foreign universities will be able to offer independent degrees, without the need to tie up with a local university. As far as undergraduate courses are concerned, cost of education is cheap in the country. Thus there is no need for any apprehension that foreign universities will target only undergraduate students. But they target towards graduate and doctoral programmes. Foreign universities operating in India will allow students who cannot afford to travel abroad to get the same degree in India. To that extent, it will cater to a different category of students.
If foreign universities start operating in India, it will give students a choice and expand higher education offerings in India. There is a huge gap in the demand and supply in higher education and foreign universities will fill some part of this gap. Thus Students in India will get a far better choice and competitive pressures will also improve the quality of the present education providers in India.
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Chelat Gopalakrishnan
Thrissur