Speaking at the Indian Economic Summit, Kapil Sibal, who heads the Ministry of Human Resource Development, announced legislation that will allow foreign universities to finally enter India.
It is hoped that the foreign education bill will help provide better, more cost effective education whilst saving India a fortune by retaining many of the 160,000 students who annually move to study abroad.
Human capital, India's competitive advantage
It is often said that India's young population - circa 35% of India's 1.2 billion population is aged between 20 and 25 years old - provides India with significant competitive advantage over other emerging markets.
Of an estimated 509 million workers employed in India, only 12% are skilled, this imbalance requires quick and radical attention, especially when considering that 20 million Indians reach college age each year.
According to Technopack, an Indian based consultancy, 60% of colleges and 90% of universities in the country are of a "poor standard".
In addition, University Grant's Commission figures show that only 9% of 20-25 year olds enroll in to college.
Potential to cause economic drag
The World Economic Forum, 2009 Global Competitiveness Index ranked India 101st (of 133 countries) for primary education. Higher education and vocational training fared little better, ranked 66th overall.
If the quality and number of graduates doesn't improve India's advantage will become a major disadvantage due to a major skills shortage. Far from boosting the economy, its human capital will become a drag
Private sector participation
Sibal also expects the private sector to get involved, encouraging India's new wave of successful corporations and entrepreneurs to take "the route of philanthropy that formed the basis of so many institutions in the US". With some estimates suggesting 1500 new universities are required over the next five years; no wonder Sibal is looking for help to foot the bill.
India's corporate world should be listening, even India's hugely successful IT industry is affected. Just days ago NASSCOM, the industries trade association concluded that 75% of engineering graduates are unemployable.
Top down or bottom up
A fundamental decision needs to be made on how to ensure that India maximizes its human capital. Given the scale of the challenge should the emphasis be placed on attracting the best Ivy League and Oxbridge universities?
Or would India see more of a return if standards were improved from the bottom up, meaning that a high proportion of India's young population benefit from an improved education.
Indian education standards are good and that has been accepted by world..Microsoft, IBM, NASA have employed significant number of indians working on complex projects. The emphasis on mathematics & logical development in indian education system has seen worldwide IT companies sourcing talent from India. So in short the Indian education system standard is good ,stamped & approved by the world. But some aspects where Indian universities can improve are research especially in post graduate, PhD areas, infrastructure required for carrying out research, funding for research and most important acceptance from Industry that funds, gives ideas of research to universities. This industry led research model has been successfully executed by foreign universities and if explored with indian industry then definitely we will see education standards reaching new heights.
In addition...... Teachers : i guess foreign universities have been successful to retain experienced, talented proffessors. In india academics is not a option pursued as salaries are less and income from research is marginal or even null, so the best of the talent is attracted by industry where they are employed for doing research. I feel foreign universities will offer better compensation to professors and we will see academics as interesting profession.
And finally...... Globalization: i feel foreign universities will bring in some new concepts like globalization. for e.g. today car is designed in America/Europe , components sourced from china, India , assembled in Mexico, Latin America, East Europe and finally sold to end customer. It will be become interesting to understand cultures, capabilities of each of the respective countries which can be imbibed by these foreign universities to there students, the pont i;m trying to make is foreign universities have campuses globally they can hire professor from each respective country where the product is best produced and give lectures to their students. This way we will definitely see education bar been raised in india
In this millennium, the world will witness a borderless society. Global competition and cultural transformation will become the order of the day. Free flow of information will open up new vistas in the field of conventional and professional education. To maintain the competitive edge in the field of higher education, it will become necessary for India to:
1. Develop a long term vision and share it widely.
2. Generate a sense of challenge and commitment.
3. Share information and build networks.
4. Ensure quality assurance, productivity
5. improvement and technology development, aimed at improving the quality of life of the people.
Productivity signifies a combination of efficiency and effectiveness of a system. It is in fact the efficient and effective use of penitential resources. In a generic sense, however, it is still defined as a ratio of output to the input of various resources. It seems that at the start of the century, education policies are dominated by the idea of sale, in the shape of sophisticated public relations and marketing in the form of elaborate information and control system. Instead, the most important and central to the planning of educational policies should be the notion of academic productivity; perhaps even fecundity.
Just as in the case of any commercial venture, in academics too, we should evaluate productivity both in terms of quality and quantity. Being the second largest nation in terms of population, India is rich in manpower resources. The pool of science and technology personnel in the country is one of the largest in the world, ranking third. However, in terms of productivity indicators (e.g. personnel per 1000 population, investment per personnel, rate of commercialisation of outputs, etc), India comes across rather poorly. When its large manpower resource is measured in term of economic and demographic standards, India turns out to be one of the mediocre nations in the world.
Now Question is Why in India :
To do business and earn money. The huge population size of India is a special attraction for any foreign country. The foreign universities are trying to take the advantage of the situation where institutions providing quality education do not exist in adequate numbers. They are trying to fill this vacuum. Also, the Indian universities/colleges, from the point of infrastructure and management, are not in a position to cater to the huge student population which grows at a rate of about 15 per cent per annum. Students thus explore the alternative approach of getting higher education from open universities in India and abroad.
Technology and liberalisation have globalised quality competitions and have encouraged free competition of products and services including higher education.
It would require a thorough in-depth evaluation of the present state of affairs of the higher education in India and also suitable action to achieve higher levels of productivity. Planning must be done in order to cater to the needs of the consumers of higher education - the students. Achieving the desired objectives in the realm of higher education will require high degree of dexterity and sophistication, strict discipline, high levels of commitment and an equally high level of motivation from the government agencies.
There is no reliable data available to us regarding the courses offered by these centers and the measures they adopt for quality assurance.
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It would be appropriate to outline flexibe mechanisms for clearing the proposals for foreign educational institutions.
Criteria for suitability of operations of a foreign university in India should be:
a) relevance to education programs to the priorities of the country,
b) the reputation and accreditation of the university in its own country and the university�s willingness to offer programs in collaboration with the recognizing Indian institutions.
It is being realised that, we can neither restrict foreign programs in India nor can we stop the transfer of money under the present conditions. Reserve Bank of India has expressed its difficulty to stop the remittances of course fee of bona fide cases.
Consistent with the basic principles of expanding foreign education, we should lay down specific guidelines for registration of foreign education service providers. Amongst other things these may include the following
Restriction on the type of legal entity that can operate.
Limitation on the remittances.
Compulsory investment of a portion of surplus on R & D.
Non-discrimination in salary structure on ground of nationality.
Pre-appraisal of the foreign education service provider by a designated agency.
Transparency in admission procedures.
Provision for seats for resident Indians.
Earmarking of academic/non academic posts for resident Indians, etc.
The Institutions will be encouraged to obtain comparability/equivalence of the award offered by them with the awards conferred in India and will also be encouraged to form association for self regulation. These guidelines will initially be issued as administrative orders and later fortified through specific provisions in related legislation along with a provision for penalty and forfeiture of the recognition for violation/irregularities.
Institutions and programs offered by foreign universities should be properly accredited in their own countries and awards recognised as equivalent to the awards given for their on campus programs.
They shall avoid gross commercialisation consistent with the principle of no-profit-no-loss for education services laid down by the Supreme Court of India.
They shall maintain minimum standards as laid down by a designated agency and will be subject to external quality review.
They shall furnish all information about their operation in order to maintain transparency.
There shall be a mandatory registration of foreign education service providers with a registering authority at such terms and conditions and following such procedure as may be provided.
Operations of the foreign educational institutions should enable positive cross cultural exchanges and not have deleterious effect on Indian culture and ethos.
These institutions should be open for participation to all the citizens of India irrespective of caste, class and creed.
The RBI should review the procedure of account transactions on tie-up arrangements with foreign universities.
The higher education system in India is appreciated globally. Even US president Mr. Barack Obama had acknowledged this during one of his speeches saying that professionals from India and China are overtaking those from other parts of the world because of the standard of higher education in various streams. In the light of the above fact, I personally feel that the government in India should allow foreign universities in the areas where Indian universities have not yet reached. The emphasis should be to ensure quality education so that the students from these universities can handle global challenges scientifically, technically and economically
Entry of foreign educational institutions will certainly advance and enhance the present education standards in India. Education is an important element in the development of any nation. Given India's large population and growing need for quality education, the education sector has to be liberalised. Just like any other sector. Yes, foreign institutions would want something in return, and by partnering or entering Indian education they are to benefit in the long term. India, with its low cost of living as compared to the global developed education centres can become a major attraction for students from other developing countries, thus benefiting the country economically and to some extent balancing the outflow of resources. India has been very prudent when it comes to financial liberalisation (though perhaps that’s what has insulated us from the direct effects of the global financial crisis to some extent).
Thanks for the article.....
In my personal opinion; the entry of foreign universities in to India wont be enough to raise standards - we need to do a whole lot more
No way this is enough.
first we need to address education at the grass-roots level - primary, secondary, higher secondary levels while ensuring control on the number of drop outs.
We need to introduce free education for the economically weaker sections and implement/ ensure attendance.
Next we need to bifurcate the system say around the 10th grade towards either Pre University and/ or Vocational Training.
Once this is done, we can expect some results.
It will take another 2 generations to start seeing results provided we begin right now.