Editorial: Boost for India’s higher education

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s announcement that 15 foreign universities are expected to establish their campuses by 2025-26 in the country is welcome development in India’s burgeoning but flawed educational landscape

For decades, India’s higher education system has been unable to shake off its colonial character, designed to churn out clerks and stifle innovative thinking. Unfortunately, the structural flaws were allowed to continue to impair the growth needed to achieve real transformation. Approving the entry of foreign universities into the country is one of the key areas of educational reforms that is long overdue. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s announcement that 15 foreign universities are expected to establish their campuses by 2025-26 is a welcome development. With the recent approval from the University Grants Commission (UGC) to establish its first overseas campus in Bengaluru, the UK-based University of Liverpool has joined a growing list of international institutions showing eagerness to launch their operations in India. It is the second member of the prestigious Russell Group to launch a campus in India, after the University of Southampton in Gurugram. Two Australian universities have already commenced operations in Gujarat. Any established institution that offers an exceptional learning experience, with a strong research culture, is a welcome addition to India’s burgeoning but flawed educational landscape. In 2023, the UGC unveiled draft norms for allowing, for the first time, foreign universities to set up campuses in India with autonomy to decide the admission procedure, and fees structure and even repatriate funds back home. Political posturing and fear-mongering had delayed the much-needed reforms.

The last attempt, made by UPA-II in 2010 in the form of the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill, had failed to pass muster in Parliament and lapsed in 2014 because the BJP, which was then in the opposition, had opposed it along with the Left and Samajwadi Party. In power for the last ten years, the saffron party has realised the importance of restructuring the higher education sector. Given the inadequate opportunities and poor quality of higher education at home, a large number of Indian students go abroad every year in search of greener pastures. Over the last two decades, overseas branch campuses have mushroomed across the globe. The US universities alone run over 70 foreign campuses, most of which are clustered in China and the Gulf countries. Interestingly, the funding of most of the foreign campuses of American universities mainly comes from the host countries’ governments. While India has offered no such financial or infrastructural support, it is hoped that the formidable size of the target segment would be attractive enough for foreign universities to consider India as a potential destination. Currently, just over a quarter of India’s 18-23-year-olds are enrolled in a college or university, leaving a vast potential market open for foreign education providers. The entry of foreign universities can lead to improved quality of education and increased global exposure. However, the government needs to address the concerns over the high fee structure largely unaffordable for Indians, regulatory complexities and national security.

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