Rigid rules deter foreign varsities from entering India

Foreign universities are not eager to enter India, despite having tie-ups with their Indian counterparts, because of the stringent policy regime.

In the current scenario, while a foreign educational institution can enter the country as a company (under the provisions of the Companies Act), no top international university has opened its campus in India.

Conditions To enter India, a foreign university has to be among the top 400, should apply under not-for-profit legal entities, and should be in existence for at least 20 years and accredited by an agency of that country or in the absence of its accreditation in that country, by an internationally accepted system of accreditation. Moreover, it is required to maintain a corpus of not less than ₹25 crore.

A former IIT Director said, on condition of anonymity, “Unfortunately, the liberation of higher education from the license permit raj culture has not happened yet. Foreign Universities Bill is as good as dead. No foreign university is interested in coming in such a regime. The kind of environment you require is a very open. You need a different mindset, a new strategy and make sure that red tape is done away with.”

Negligible FDI According to the Department for Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), education accounted for 0.43 per cent of cumulative FDI inflow from April 2000 to March 2014 at ₹4,875 crore.

While the foreign universities are looking for greater flexibility in the entry policy for campuses, many have opened centres for research, which requires less regulatory interferences.

The University of Chicago opened its research centre in Delhi in March, while Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (or Virginia Tech), opened its centre in May. Deakin University, a well-known name from Australia, has a centre in New Delhi, and Harvard Business School has an Indian research centre in Mumbai.

New policy on anvil Meanwhile, Minister for Human Resource Development Smriti Irani has said that a new education policy is on the anvil. In all likelihood, she will revisit the Foreign Educational Institutions (Entry and Operations) Bill. The NDA is better placed with its absolute majority in the Lok Sabha, though it will need others’ support in the Rajya Sabha.

Irani has also been meeting with top officials of countries such as Singapore, Germany and Britain, all of which are keen to strengthen collaboration with India in the field of education and research, according to various releases from the HRD Ministry.

Ill-fated Bill The Foreign Educational Institutions (Entry and Operations) Bill, which was mooted by the then HRD Minister Kapil Sibal in the early days of UPA II, was opposed by Left parties and a few BJP leaders who objected to foreign players entering the education market. Some felt that it would spawn substandard ‘teaching shops’ in the country.

The proposal was then sent for the consideration of a parliamentary committee and could not be revived because the UPA did not have the required numbers to get it passed in the Rajya Sabha.

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