Ashok Jha: A question of credibility

There is an ongoing battle between the CFA Institute in the US and the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) as to the right to use the letters "CFA" and words "Chartered Financial Analysis". The issue today is less about who gets the trademark and more about whether there should be trademarks for professional courses. An associated and important corollary is whether such trademarks ensure quality.

The professional education system in India is governed by a number of regulatory bodies, some through Parliamentary legislation like the CA Act and CWA Act, and others through specifically created regulatory bodies, such as the Bar Council for lawyers, the Medical Council of India, the Indian Nursing Council and the Pharmacy Council of India for health care, and so on. Engineering and management have the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). These bodies ensure a minimum level of education and acceptable professional conduct in their respective fields. But as yet there is no specific regulation applicable to any foreign institution offering educational or professional programmes to students in India.

In countries such as the UK, where most of the professional bodies have been created through a Royal Charter, there are built-in regulations for the quality of education and professional conduct. In the US, higher education is regulated at the state level and institutions which obtain approval of the state also seek accreditation from national accrediting agencies in order to establish their reputation.

In the field of professional education and sectors like health care, law, accountancy and others, there are independent state bodies which grant the licence to practice. But certifications and programmes in many other fields offered by professional bodies for membership are not regulated in the US.

A large number of for-profit and non-profit institutions have come into existence in the US in the last 50 years, especially in the area of investments. These institutions do not have the approval of the state "" they rely on professional certifications/designations awarded by the trade. Of late, these institutions are trying to spread and popularise their programmes in countries like India and China which are large markets. None of these institutions have any approvals from the domestic regulatory authorities in the area of education, nor are they accredited to any reputed accrediting agencies.

In India, where the quality of professional education is closely regulated, should such institutions whose sole strength appears to be their trademarks and whose quality is not certified by any independent agency in the domestic country, be allowed to have a free run? The question one should ask is, are trademarks a substitute for the stamp of quality as certified by independent agencies? This is not intended to question the quality of programmes foreign institutions may offer in India, but whether we should allow operations of those institutions which have no approval or certification of quality of their programmes in their home countries?

The author is a former finance secretary to the Government of India