With Knowledge the New Oil, India Must Welcome Foreign Univs

Allowing foreign universities to set foot in India will help raise standards of higher education, writes Nikhil Sinha

The momentum for allowing foreign universities to set up campuses in India may be building again. In June, the prime minister met with officials of Niti Ayog, the Commerce Ministry and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to discuss the opening up of the sector to foreign institutions and the Niti Ayog is now in the process of developing a framework on these lines.

This is a very important initiative and must not be allowed to fail, as did previous attempt under the UPA government. Liberalisation has bypassed Indian higher education and despite the growth in enrollments, significant problems exist in the quality of education. The sector is plagued by a shortage of trained faculty, poor infrastructure and outdated and irrelevant curricula.

Students Being Let Down by Indian Institutes

The use of technology in higher education remains limited and standards of research and teaching in Indian universities are far below international standards, with no Indian university featuring consistently in the top 200 institutions globally. India remains the rare instance of a large emerging economy which has done very little in the past 10 years to significantly reform its higher education system and prepare it for the competitive global environment of the 21st century. 

As a consequence, nearly 2.90 lakh Indian students go abroad every year for higher education. Driven primarily by the poor quality of research and teaching, India’s best and brightest students are turning their backs on our higher education institutions to study at the world’s top universities, spending about Rs 60,000 crore a year to do so.  This is twice the amount allocated in the Union budget for higher education and nearly 20 times as much money as our HEIs spend on research collectively.

Developing Excellence

• Indian higher education sector plagued by shortage of trained faculty, poor infrastructure and archaic curricula
  
• Standards of research and teaching far below international levels
  
• 2.90 lakh Indian students go abroad every year for higher education
  
• Permitting leading foreign institutions to set up campuses in India will slow the brain drain
  
• Foreign institutions located in India will keep country abreast of the international scientific frontier
  
• There is an immediate need for a broader internationalisation of Indian higher education
  

Foreign Institutions will Slow Down Brain Drain

Permitting leading foreign institutions to set up campuses in India will not solve all the problems of the sector but could provide several significant benefits. At the most basic level such campuses will slow the brain drain. In fact, these campuses could potentially reverse the outflow of students, attracting students from the Indian diaspora to come to the country to study. They will also attract students from the region, helping make India a viable Asian hub for higher education and providing a strong alternative to China, which has now emerged as the third-most popular destination for higher education, after the US and the UK.

The best international institutions have built their reputations on the quality of their research programmes and the close connect between research and industrial applications. Foreign institutions located in India will keep the country abreast of the international scientific frontier, ensure that educational content and curricula is of world standards and engage the best researchers in the country. Along with the best Indian institutions, they would serve as exemplars of excellence and help raise the overall quality of Indian higher education.

In addition to permitting foreign institutions to open campuses, there is an immediate need for a broader internationalisation of Indian higher education. At the most basic level, we need to liberalise policies for attracting foreign students to India and removing restrictions on their enrollment in Indian universities. We need to permit and encourage Indian institutions to partner with foreign institutions for dual degree programmes and faculty and student exchange.

More Needs To Be Done

Indian institutions should be allowed to benchmark their curricula to international standards and should be permitted and encouraged to seek programme accreditation through internationally recognised accrediting agencies. Migrating to an internationally compatible credit system will allow Indian institutions to accept credits earned at international institutions as well as the international institutions to accept credits earned at Indian institutions.

Indian institutions should be free to hire international faculty to permanent positions or on long-term contracts and research and innovation networks between Indian and foreign institutions need to be encouraged and supported.

Of course, permitting foreign institutions to enter the country and internationalising the sector is not a panacea for Indian higher education and a lot more needs to be done internally to improve the quality of higher education. This includes:

* launching a nationwide effort to tackle the shortage of good quality faculty

* Implementing a mandatory accreditation system for all institutions

* Improving the standard of state institutions through the effective implementation of the Rashtriya Uchya Shiksha Abhiyan

* Identifying 25-30 Indian institutions and giving them special funding and autonomy to develop as world-class research institutions

But permitting foreign institutions to set up campuses in the country is an important first step in liberalising the sector and attracting high quality foreign investment to not just ‘Make in India’ but to also ‘Educate in India’.

The worldwide transition to knowledge-based economies, coupled with growing global competition, demands that nations develop significant capacity to create, disseminate and utilise intellectual assets as means for enhancing growth and productivity. In the 21st century, knowledge has become the foundation of economic, social and political power – the new oil.

Higher education is the principal site for the creation and dissemination of new knowledge, so ensuring that excellence in higher education is promoted and maintained has become vital for economic growth.  Permitting top quality foreign institutions to locate campuses in the country will help put India on the path to developing such excellence.

(The writer is the founding vice-chancellor of Shiv Nadar University and is also the non-executive chairman of HCL Infosystems and a member of FICCI’s higher education committee)