Foreign Universities

To promote higher educational standards in Gujarat, one of Israel’s top universities is planning to establish a centre of Innovation in the state. According to the Israeli ambassador Mark Sofer a centre would be set up by Israel’s world class research university named Technion Israel Institute of Technology. He made the announcement soon after an hour long meeting with Gujarat’s chief minister Narendra Modi.

Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal’s plan to have value education included in school curriculums will have to wait for now if opinion of the experts he is consulting on the matter has any indication. They have advised Sibal against any move to create a separate value education curriculum.

On June 23, the Australian government announced changes in the Education Services and Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000 so as to improve the quality of educational services provided to foreign students. The move suggests that foreign students, including students from Indian, pursuing higher education in Australia shall be given greater support and encouragement. 

 Speaking on the sidelines of the 38th Shri Ram Memorial Lecture in the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry the Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal said he is not expecting leading foreign varsities like Harvard and Stanford to come to India.

After the ban on boycott of national literacy and numeracy tests and the NAPLAN site, the Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard has called on all teachers' unions across Australia to support the West Australian union in its decision to supervise the NAPLAN.

 With India deciding to open its doors to international educational institutions and varsities, HRD minister Kapil Sibal is going all out to welcome foreign education players with open arms. Speaking at a programme on higher education in India, the minister urged foreign varsities to set up bases in India and open low cost centres for development of human resources.

Even though the recently introduced Foreign Education Providers’ Bill allows renowned foreign universities to set up their campuses in the country, the government indicated that it would not permit public and private foreign universities that operate only for profit to open their institutes in India. This condition has already been set in the Foreign Education Bill along with the other two clauses that includes restricting foreign universities to take funds back to their country and maintaining minimum corpus of US $11 million.

It might be true that that the government is well-intentioned in its decision to open the gates for the foreign universities to root themselves in the Indian soil. But, the harsh reality is that the dream of allowing more Indians to graduate from foreign universities seems to be a far-fetched one.

The hurdles posed are manifold.  The six universities which have expressed their interest in entering the Indian educational scenario are Virginia Tech, Boston University, Middlesex University Georgia Tech, Schulich School of Business and Duke University.

The proposed Foreign Educational Institution Bill, which has been cleared a couple of weeks back by the Cabinet, when codified into law is likely to increase the demand for skilled technical hands and professors in the country. With the gates being opened for the foreign universities to set up their campuses in the Indian soil, the higher education sector is likely to witness stiff competition in faculty recruitment.

While the Ministry of Human resource Development (MHRD) is celebrating the initial success of the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill 2010, the Students' Islamic Organisation of India (SIOI) is quite unsure of the results once the bill becomes a law. While on one end the HRD minister, Kapil Sibal, is waiting for the large revolution in the education sector, it is this very change that is cause of apprehension for Shahnawaz Ali Raihan, national secretary, SIOI.