Can foreign universities set up campuses in India?
Why in news :
- Recently, the UGC announced the draft regulations for ‘Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India’ and invited feedback from stakeholders.
- Foreign universities and educational institutions could soon be allowed to set up campuses in India as per the draft regulations made public by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Main intention behind the move :
- To promote India as a hub for global education.
- The objective in promoting India as a global education destination is apparently aimed at saving loss of foreign exchange.
- Nearly 13 lakh students were studying abroad in 2022 and as per the RBI, ₹5 billion was lost in foreign exchange due to students going abroad in FY 2021
- The larger goal of the NEP is to take the gross enrollment ratio (GER) in colleges and universities to 50% by 2035 from the current 27%.
UGC proposals :
- The proposal allows a foreign university among the top 500 global rankings or a foreign educational institution of repute in its home jurisdiction to apply to the UGC to set up a campus in India.
- Such a campus can evolve their own admission process and criteria to admit domestic and foreign students.
- It will also have autonomy to decide its fee structure, and will face no caps that are imposed on Indian institutions.
- The fee should be “reasonable and transparent”.
- It will also have autonomy to recruit faculty and staff from India and abroad.
- However, such universities and colleges cannot “offer any such programme of study which jeopardises the national interest of India or the standards of higher education in India.”
- They will also be allowed cross-border movement of funds.
Previous attempts to allow foreign universities :
- There have been several moves towards bringing in foreign universities in the past.
- In 2010, the UPAII government brought the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill, which was not passed as the BJP, the Samajwadi Party and left parties opposed it for multiple reasons including concerns of Western influence on Indian ethos.
The stand of National Education Policy :
- The National Education Policy (NEP) says that the top 100 universities in the world will be facilitated to operate in India through a legislative framework.
- While the NEP talks about creating a legislative framework, the government is following the regulatory route.
- Critically, the NEP also proposes attracting the top 100 universities, while the UGC draft permits universities with top 500 global rankings.
Issues with the proposal :
- Lack of infrastructure :
- While India wants to be a global destination for higher education it lacks the infrastructure needed to support that ambition.
- Lack of human resources.
Syllabus : Prelims + Mains; GS2 – Governance
