Should Foreign Universities be allowed in India?
Posted by Ninad on September 22, 2009 under All Posts | 
2 Comments to Read
Education is a regulated sector across the world. Most countries do not easily allow foreign universities to operate in their country and if they do allow, it is done with a lot of regulations.
In India, The Foreign Education Providers (Regulation) Bill has been waiting in the wings since 2007.
The Bill seeks to regulate the entry, operation and maintenance of foreign education providers.
It has been reported that Kapil Sibal, Education Minister has cleared the draft of Foreign Education Providers (Regulation) Bill and it will be placed before the Union Cabinet soon.
Once cleared by the Parliament, foreign universities will be able to offer degree programmes independently in India.
Presently, 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.
The raison d’etre for this bill is that it will save millions of dollars as Indian students will be able to study in foreign universities while staying in India. More than 250,000 students from India are studying in various universities outside India.
Students will still travel abroad to get a holistic education experience –- after all, education is much more than a degree. Hence, it is unlikely to save foreign exchange.
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. Hopefully, some of these foreign universities will also improve the culture of research in India.
Kapil Sibal has mentioned that some of the best universities in the world are waiting in the wings to set up shop in India. One only hopes that good quality education is provided by foreign universities and India does not become a happy hunting ground for mediocre universities.
We will have to wait for the details of the Bill. However, if it does become a law, it will augur well for the Education sector in India. Students in India will get a far better choice and competitive pressures will also improve the quality of the present education providers in India.
The good old days of getting a degree from Oxford University only in Oxford may be over — it might soon be available in Pune!
Chandraprakash Padiyar said,
I think it should be allowed. Today due to variety of reasons students in India prefer to go for specialised courses like the CFA Degree run by the CFA Institute, USA. However due to legal issues, even to appear for the examination of such courses, students need to fly out of the country to neighbouring countries. Such waste of time and money.
Maybe the government needs to have an unbiased regulator to avoid non serious guys trying to profit from the emotions and aims of students in the country.
nidhi said,
I think it shouldn’t be allowed because the foreign universities don’t give their best teachers to India as they are willing to set up schools and colleges in India only for only businness point of view. They are not interested in making children of other countries capable of competing with their students. I support the poractice of students going out for higher studies because they get a different environment and culture there which givrw them the opportunity to learn to adjust with th surrounding. But living in India and attending foreign schools and colleges gives no meaning at all. We can get the same or even better education in India even in our own schools and colleges.
If our government wants the students to get higher qualifications then, instead of wasting money in setting up infrastructure for the foreign universities, they should utilize that money in sending the students out which can allow them to come across many culture through which they learn many moral values too.
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