{"id":186172,"date":"2022-05-24T20:30:50","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T15:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=186172"},"modified":"2022-05-24T20:32:02","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T15:02:02","slug":"a-harvard-branch-in-india-prospects-and-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/a-harvard-branch-in-india-prospects-and-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"A Harvard branch in India, prospects and challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News<\/strong>: In Budget 2022, Finance Minister announced that \u201cworld-class foreign universities<\/strong> and institutions would be allowed in the planned business district in Gujarat\u2019s GIFT City\u201d.<\/strong> These institutions would be free from domestic regulations to facilitate availability of high-end human resources.<\/p>\n

And the British Prime Minister<\/strong> during his visit to India wished to strengthen the United Kingdom-India academic collaboration<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Background<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 <\/strong>promises higher education reforms in many areas, and internationalisation is prominent among them.<\/p>\n

The NEP 2020 recommended allowing foreign universities <\/strong>ranked in the \u201ctop 100\u201d category to operate in India.<\/p>\n

Arguments in favour of establishment of the foreign branches in India<\/strong><\/p>\n

India is an emerging<\/strong> higher education power<\/strong>. It is the world\u2019s second largest<\/strong> \u201cexporter<\/strong>\u201d of students and holder of the world\u2019s second largest higher education system<\/strong>. Foreign countries and universities will be eager to establish a \u201cbeachhead\u201d in India.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s higher education collaboration<\/strong> with other countries will augment India\u2019s soft power<\/strong>, bringing new ideas<\/strong> and institutions from abroad and to show \u201cbest practice\u201d in India.<\/p>\n

International branch campuses could function as a structurally different variant<\/strong> of India\u2019s private university sector. They would encourage<\/strong> competition<\/strong> mainly between existing private universities<\/strong> and foreign branch institutions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The branches could bring new ideas about curriculum, pedagogy, and governance to Indian higher education.<\/p>\n

What are the issues in India\u2019s international higher education collaborations?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Indian Side<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many regulatory hurdles <\/strong>with regard to international academic partnerships, which includes the operation of international branch campuses. Before NEP 2020, India did not allow the entry and the operation of foreign university branch campuses.<\/p>\n

The FM budget speech marked departure<\/strong> from the NEP 2020 recommendations that allow only the \u201ctop 100\u201d<\/strong> category to operate in India.<\/p>\n

The Minister of State for Education reply<\/strong> in the Lok Sabha in March also marked departure<\/strong> from the NEP 2020 recommendations. For example, two foreign institutions, from France and Italy, which are not universities, had expressed interest in setting up campuses in India.<\/p>\n

The University Grants Commission (UGC)<\/strong> has formed a committee to draft regulations to allow foreign institutions in the \u201ctop 500\u201d category<\/strong> to establish campuses in India.<\/p>\n

Foreign Side<\/strong><\/h5>\n

There are issues over practicality. The overseas universities<\/strong> are highly unlikely to invest significant funds up front.<\/p>\n

The global branches would be aimed at making money for the sponsoring university which is not in India\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n

International collaborations have failed. For example, the Yale University and the National University of Singapore partnership ( the Yale-NUS) College<\/strong> came to an end recently.<\/p>\n

Way Forward<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The top universities that are already engaged overseas would require incentives to set up in India. For example, building facilities<\/strong> and providing necessary infrastructure<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

There are smaller but highly regarded universities<\/strong> outside the \u2018top 500\u2019 category <\/strong>that might be more interested.<\/p>\n

Universities around the world that have academic specialisations <\/strong>focusing on India, or that have NRI<\/strong> in senior management positions etc. may be easier to attract for India.<\/p>\n

India should prevent profit-seekers<\/strong> from entering the Indian market. Instead, the foreign institutions having innovative educational ideas<\/strong> and a long-term commitment<\/strong> should be encouraged.<\/p>\n

The bureaucratic hurdles should be drastically cut to ensure success in attracting branch campuses.<\/p>\n

A new accreditation mechanism<\/strong>, flexible visa rules<\/strong> for foreign students and faculty, and financial incentives<\/strong> to offer programmes should be considered as priority areas<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201cA Harvard branch in India, prospects and challenges<\/strong>\u201d published in the \u201cThe Hindu<\/strong>\u201d on 24th<\/sup> May 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: In Budget 2022, Finance Minister announced that \u201cworld-class foreign universities and institutions would be allowed in the planned business district in Gujarat\u2019s GIFT City\u201d. These institutions would be free from domestic regulations to facilitate availability of high-end human resources. And the British Prime Minister during his visit to India wished to strengthen the United… Continue reading A Harvard branch in India, prospects and challenges<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-186172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}