On 5th January of this year, the UGC (university grants commission) announced the draft regulations for ‘setting up and operating campuses of foreign higher educational institutions in India’, in pursuant to the New education policy [NEP] 2020; whereby such (foreign) universities will be given the freedom to decide their governance and content norms on par with autonomous institutions of India.
This basically seems to indicate that foreign universities will have the freedom to devise their own curriculum and admission process. The draft resolution states that fees have to be ‘reasonable and transparent’, which is rather ambiguous and open to any interpretation. The other parts of this draft deals with annual reports, maintaining accounts and most importantly, empowering the UGC to inspect, regulate, interpret and also terminate the permissions of foreign universities to operate in India.
This entire proposal is based on a series of self-delusional thought processes by the bureaucrats of the UCC.
Firstly, education in India is the cash-cow of politicians who own and operate private institutions and universities without having to bother with the quality of education delivered or the skill sets mastered by the graduating students of such ‘temples of learning’. Beyond that, political interference is a regular feature in government run educational institutions. Does the UGC really expect that politicians will not only allow better standards of competition against their business of education, but that they will not interfere in the functioning of the foreign universities? The very premise of freedom to operate in India has already been negated by the UGC itself by self-empowerment of the UGC “to inspect, regulate, interpret and also terminate the permissions of foreign universities to operate in India.”
The next issue
that the UGC has failed to clarify is their policy towards reasonable and
transparent fees. As per this draft policy, foreign universities are required
to set-up world class physical facilities in India, which means a heavy
investment in land acquisition and construction. Land values in India are unjustifiably
high due to faulty land policy and political corruption. The lengthy,
complicated and expensive ‘approval process’ for construction has been designed
to ensure that land supply remains constrained and prices remain high. The
other factor is ‘greasing the wheels’ of government officials at every stage. European
and American laws prohibit their citizens from indulging in corruption and they
can be severely punished when malfeasance is discovered. A recent example is
the EU Vice-President who was removed from office and arrested for corruption. Does
the UGC really believe that foreign universities will indulge in corruption,
just because it’s our bureaucratic culture? Taking everything into account, and
the expectations of foreign universities for a quick RoI (return on
investment), the fees the students will be expected to pay might be prohibitive
for the majority of Indian students.
How about the issue on reservations and quota? Foreign universities are unlikely to compromise on the quality of their student intake or offer discounts in their fee structure. In January 2019, the Narendra Modi government amended the Constitution of India to ensure 10% reservation in admissions to the economically backward among upper castes (in addition to the other reservation categories already in existence for the backward castes and minorities), and announced that these reservations will be extended to private universities as well as public ones. With deep discounting in the fees by government mandate, private universities will have to basically write-off fees from the reserved seats, thereby affecting their financial income negatively. Will the UGC make this policy mandatory for the foreign universities they are inviting into India?
Another point that will become contentious is that English language will be the preferred language of delivery of curriculum in foreign owned universities. This will create agitation among local politicians who will protest that the imposition of English would give it enhanced importance and revert society to the yesteryear of the British raj.
The cultural impact of foreign universities being allowed to operate in India is a dangerous proposition. Racism against Indians is prevalent in various US academic institutions like the University of Pennsylvania, while the universities of Berkeley, Emory, Toronto, Goettingen, and the University of Illinois; had no hesitation in sponsoring and promoting the conference on “Dismantling Global Hindutva” that had been announced from 10-12 September 2021. This politically prejudiced campaign was promoted as an ‘academic event’, and was reportedly co-sponsored by over 50 American universities, including Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Cornell, Northwestern University and New York University. Rutgers University regularly sponsors and pays the anti-India activist Audrey Truschke for her systematic attacks on the culture of India, while Prof Meena Dhanda of Wolverhampton University has openly called for the annihilation of Brahmins of India, and the university has supported this view by refusing to take any disciplinary action against her. Has the UGC bureaucrats taken into consideration, this anti- India hatred that is prevalent in foreign universities, before proposing the draft regulations for ‘Setting up and operating campuses of foreign higher educational institutions in India’?
The other most important
aspect is the reason that certain sections of Indian students take admissions in
universities abroad, is migration and settlement in foreign countries. These
students are either from rich families or their families take huge loans just
for the singular purpose of settling their children abroad for, as per their
view, a better and richer lifestyle. Why will students consider studying in
foreign university campuses in India, if it does not fulfill the critical
requirement of migrating and settling abroad?
Finally, India should be the leader in international education by increasing the standards through our own resources and becoming a global higher education destination with our own capabilities, rather than off-loading this important responsibility onto foreign universities.
Disclaimer: This article is a 100% human effort and has not been generated using artificial intelligence!
