Waiting for a new chapter

If 2010 was the year of education reforms, the new year is expected to see the private sector stepping on the gas, finally. Kalpana Pathak reports.

Foreign Universities on Indian shores: The eagerly awaited Foreign Educational Institutions Regulation of Entry and Operations bill, which has been pending for over four years received the cabinet nod in March 2010. Academics hope that the bill would receive a green light this year. The bill which seeks to regulate entry, operation and restriction of foreign universities in India, requires passage by both houses of Parliament to be instituted as law.

Enabling entry of Foreign Educational Institutions would not only provide opportunity to foreign universities to set up campuses in India but help India save on large foreign exchange outgo. At present, over 143 Indian institutes and 161 foreign education institutions are engaged in collaboration delivering a total of 641 programmes across disciplines. These courses are being delivered through five key models namely: twining arrangements; link programmes; study centre; distance learning arrangement and franchise mode.

Executive Education
Unable to ignore the India growth story and to diversify their revenue stream, over half-a-dozen international B-schools are in India, planning to cash in on the Rs 300 crore executive education pie. While Harvard Business School, INSEAD and Tuck School of Business are already present in the country, they would soon be joined by others like Oxford University’s Said Business School and Duke University. The Said Business School at the University of Oxford proposes to establish a Center for Indian business studies · the Oxford University India Business Center which will, among other things, also deliver executive education programmes. Many universities are still studying the Indian market. The sector would see more participation from international B-schools and universities.

Corporate Universities
Much before Kapil Sibal sought help of the private sector to meet the rising education demand in the country, companies had prepared blue-print for their education foray. So while Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Foundation announced its plans to set up a university in Puri, Orissa on over 6,000 acres with an investment of Rs 15,000 crore, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries too chalked out plans to set up a world class university. Other companies which have announced plans include — Azim Premji Foundation, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, B K Modi, Future Group, Bharti Foundation and Shiv Nadar Foundation among others.

Private sector has increasingly participated in domains of higher education such as, in pharmacy – 95 per cent, in engineering – 91 per cent and in medicine – 50 per cent. To achieve a gross enrollment ratio (GER) of 30 per cent by 2020, India would need another over 700 Universities and 25,000 colleges. At present India’s GER is 12 per cent against 82 per cent in the US and 75 per cent in Russia.

Evolving Distance Education
From the traditional text book model, distance education courses have evolved to be delivered through study centres; online; television and mobile phones. In fact, soon IIT aspirants coming years will see IIT JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) aspirants accessing coaching material on their mobile phones. Education service providers like Everonn Education and NIIT will be able to stream educational content through the third generation (3G) mobile telephony using the satellite-based Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) Technology and Broadband. National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTel), promoted by the Indian Institutes of Technology is another success story which students have been accessing online even through YouTube.

NPTEL has around 4400 videos on You Tube in 120 courses and 2.6 million viewers. The Indira Gandhi National Open University with over 2.4 million students and around 3,000 learning centres has been growing using the study centre model. Other players in the distance education segment are: Punjab Technical University with 1,200 learning centres; Sikkim Manipal University with 750 centres and Maharishi Dayanand University with 759 centres. These players deliver courses ranging from IT to management, to fashion and media. Many companies are studying the model to launch more courses.