India’s higher education system lags behind in infrastructure, quality teaching, and investment in research.
Indian universities have produced CEOs at companies from Microsoft Corp. to Google; now Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes they can get even better with competition from global names like Yale, Oxford and Stanford.
Prime Minister Modi’s government is pushing to reform the country’s heavily regulated education sector to attract nearly 750,000 students who spend around $ 15 billion each year to earn degrees abroad, said Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank. ‘, in written responses to questions.
The legislation, which will regulate the operation of foreign universities, is being prepared for approval by parliament, where the government retains a significant majority. It represents a change in attitude for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which has long resisted opening up the country’s education sector.
“There has been a lot of enthusiasm,” Pokhriyal said, noting that the Australian government and some universities had shown interest in the proposal. “Very soon, India will have some of the best world-class institutions.”
India needs to boost its education sector to become more competitive and close the growing gap between university curricula and market demands. It is currently ranked 72nd out of 132 nations in the 2020 Global Talent Competitiveness Index that measures the nation’s ability to grow, attract and retain talent.
However, India’s notoriously complicated bureaucracy may be the main obstacle for foreign universities, along with difficulties in acquiring land, academic staff, and adequate infrastructure. The minister did not specify what incentives India will offer to attract foreign universities, except that the institutions, which must operate non-profit, will be in a playing field with local actors.
Some universities have already established partnerships with Indian institutions, allowing students to partially study in India and complete their degrees at the main campus abroad. The current measure encourages these foreign institutions to establish campuses without local partners.
New challenges
“We will look for new opportunities to continue these collaborations as the new India policy is implemented,” said Joe Wong, vice president of the University of Toronto, which has a partnership with the Tata Trusts and the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay. .
The University of Washington, the London School of Economics, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Western Australia were among the institutions that said they have no plans to establish campuses in India. Others, such as McGill University and the University of Sydney, said they are looking to expand their partnerships in India through new courses or research programs.
“We have been dreaming about the possibilities of teaching degrees in India,” said Alessandro Giuliani, managing director of SDA Bocconi Asia Center, an Italian business school operating in Mumbai. He said the institute is waiting to see final government regulations in the new policy, which it hopes will avoid any minimum investment requirements, especially in land.
With more than 51,000 institutions, India’s higher education system is already one of the largest in the world and, in terms of enrollment, it is second only to China. Still, it lags behind China in terms of infrastructure, quality teaching, and investment in research.
Pokhriyal is optimistic that foreign universities will set up their campuses in India to take advantage of the country’s young demographics, and the World Bank projects that 34% of its population will be between 15 and 34 years old by 2021. India had already signed agreements on education programs. with 55 countries that include exchange of scholars and students and cooperation in other initiatives, he said.
The new plan will double education spending to 6% of India’s GDP “at the earliest,” according to Pokhriyal. The federal government has proposed spending more than 9 trillion rupees or about $ 123 billion on education in the five years to 2026, of which $ 28 billion will go to higher education.
It is time for India to open up its tertiary sector, said TV Mohandas Pai, president of Manipal Global Education Services, who has conducted research on the country’s higher education system.
“The main obstacle will be the actual regulations,” Pai said. “My concern is that the control-minded bureaucracy should not thwart the enforcement of policy by putting unnecessary controls.”
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