The Indian government has taken a step to allow top educational institutions such as Yale, Stanford, and Oxford to set up campuses in India and boost the Higher education of this South Asian country.
On Thursday, 5 January, the University Grant Commission (UGC) revealed the draft legislation for public feedback which will seek to facilitate entry and operations of overseas institutions in the country for the first time ever. According to the draft formed, the local campuses will decide the fee structure, scholarships, and admissions standards for domestic and foreign students. The institution will have the authority to recruit faculty and staff.
What is our Prime Minister talking about in the education of Indian students?
PM Modi’s government is revamping the country’s education sector to enable Indian students to obtain international qualifications at affordable prices and on the way to making India a global study center for its young population.
Similar attempts, of allowing foreign institutes to be set up in India, have taken in 1995 by Bill Gates but didn’t move forward with it and also in 2005 but didn’t go up to the Cabinet stage.
India needs a push to its education sector to close the gap between the college curriculum and the demands in the market. Even though Indian universities and colleges have produced many CEOs at globally ranked companies; among 133 nations our country is currently ranked 101 for the Global Talent Competitiveness Index of 2022 (measures the nation’s ability to grow and retain talent).
Some of these universities have set up partnerships with the Nation’s Institutions, moving the students to complete the degrees on the abroad campus while partially studying in India. The move will encourage foreign institutions to set up campuses in India without the partnership and enable the students who are from the lower or middle class.
The final draft by the Regulator of the University Grant Commission will be presented to the parliament before becoming valid.
The chairperson of UGC M Jagadesh Kumar has set up some standards, for the universities that want to set up in India, that they should be ranked within the top 500 of overall or all-subject ranking.
He also said that the universities and higher education institutions will need approval from the UGC. The fee will be ‘reasonable and transparent’.
