There may not be a dramatic response to allowing foreign universities’ campuses. However, it could augur well for the country in the long run.
The Human Resource Development (HRD) on Tuesday said the regulation for allowing foreign campuses in the country was being finalised.
However, present economic environment and certain challenges might result in a lukewarm response in the near term even if the final regulation is put in place, feel experts.
“To set up a green-field university will cost about Rs 1,000 crore given the prevailing land costs. I am not expecting a great response to this at the moment,” Ajit Balakrishnan, Chairman, Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Management – Calcutta, told
Many others academicians and experts are also not too excited.
If the objective of a foreign university is just to offer teaching without research, it is of no use, according to E. Hari Babu, Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Hyderabad.
“We need to ascertain the commitment of funding for R&D to local scientists before allowing them. Otherwise, education will be become just a tradable commodity. In South Africa, many American universities are only teaching undergraduate courses without research,” he said.
Yogendra Yadav, Member, UGC sees it as “a game to push (these policies) through in the name of quality control and then dilute it through the back-door.”
MIXED VIEWS
According to Planning Commission data, there were 634 universities in the country in 2012 and the draft 12th Plan aims at increasing them to 1,500 by 2017. About 89 per cent of the entire student population was going to 293 State universities, which are struggling for funds.
Mallik Sundharam, Director, ELS Educational Services - India, said students who choose to enrol in the Indian campus of a foreign university will miss the experience of studying with a diverse mix of students from varied ethnicities.
The Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University, S. Satyanarayana, said competition would lead to better quality. Those who go abroad for education-cum-employment may not prefer foreign universities. State universities may face trouble as quality students and faculty might migrate to foreign varsities.
POSITIVE MOVE
Deepak Chandra, Deputy Dean, Indian School of Business (ISB), said he would welcome foreign universities in India. “I am assuming that good quality universities will come and nurture research culture,” he said.
Some experts, including K.R. Sekar, Partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells, termed the decision to allow foreign institutions into India as a right decision at the right time.
“The churn in the higher education industry in various fields suggests that the market is beginning to be discriminating. This is an attractive environment for good foreign universities to enter the country and provide quality education at a competitive price,” said C. Gopinath, Dean, Jindal Global Business School.
When contacted, a spokesperson for Azim Premji University declined to comment on the issue.
For Vikram Kattimani, a student of University of Hyderabad, this is a welcome move in view of the rising costs of education abroad.
Pramath Sinha of 9.9 Mediaworx, who was the founding dean of ISB and is overseeing the upcoming Ashoka University, also said it was a positive move. However, he said certain caveats may prove a deterrent for the top-rung universities. These include the stipulation that a corpus of Rs 25 crore be maintained by the universities and that they do not take any surplus profits out of the country.
“The fly-by-night operators willing to bend the rules are more likely to come in. However, right now the attempt is to prevent that,” he said. Ashok Mittal, Chancellor, Lovely Professional University, felt competition would only bring out the best from the players. The same could be expect here, though not without challenges.
(With inputs from G. Naga Sridhar/Hyderabad, Aesha Datta/New Delhi, N.S. Vageesh/Mumbai, V. Bharani/Chennai and Anil Urs/ Bangalore.)