Enter foreign universities

HRD ministry ignores parliamentary logjam

The ministry of human resource development has decided to short-cut the wait for Parliament to get its act together and pass the Foreign Education Providers Bill, which would have created a framework allowing foreign universities to enter the country. It has instead asked the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion to allow global universities - those that have operated for a certain number of decades, and have non-profit status at home - to set up campuses as straightforward non-profit companies governed by the Companies Act. This is an unexpected and welcome move; too many branches of government have for far too long considered legislative deadlock as a fine excuse to not look for non-legislative solutions that could press forward with reform. Instead of waiting for the Bill to be enacted, the universities will be routed through existing University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations. The difference, of course, is that the degrees granted by these universities will be considered "foreign", not "Indian", degrees, as they would have been if the Bill had already become law. The difference is, well, academic.

The current status is that foreign universities must find domestic partners with whom to work, and the degrees awarded require no further "certification of equivalence" with degrees awarded by Indian universities - a certification usually provided by the Association of Indian Universities. Like all such joint-venture mechanisms for foreign participation in India, these set-ups have faced quality problems. Frequently, Indian institutions brought little to the table; and foreign universities of quality were reluctant to enter India if they could not find equally high-quality domestic partners. Thus, the government has decided to just render the problem moot by altering the Rules governing the UGC to permit the entry of high-quality foreign universities without any partner or any new special regulator.

This fix will only work, however, if the eventual rules do not give the UGC excessive power over the new campuses. In particular, it must not be allowed to interfere with fees and faculty salaries. The ministry's notification states that education in Indian campuses of foreign universities will be "on a par with" that offered in the home campuses. The government must not pretend that the UGC is competent enough to decide whether or not that is the case. It is absurd to suppose that universities ranked in the top few hundred in the world - the only ones covered by this new provision - will choose to significantly dilute their brand. Trying to ensure that they do not go through government interference will only empower UGC bureaucrats under the pretence of protecting students. It will not protect students; it will hurt them by dissuading foreign universities from coming in, rendering this new policy powerless. In addition, public universities will face some much-needed competition - and they, too, must be given greater freedom over fees and salaries. The government has taken a big and sensible step forward, and it must not take two steps back.