We want to internationalise higher education: UGC chairman

Tuition fees will be decided by the statutory bodies of the universities, though some states may have regulators, he said

UGC chairman Prof M Jagadesh Kumar tells Amrita Madhukalya of DH that allowing foreign universities to open campuses in the country will encourage competition and collaboration.

Can you take us through the objective of the move of allowing foreign higher educational institutions in India?

India has the world's largest educational system, with nearly 300 million students at all levels and 40 million in higher education institutes. Our students have a huge appetite for quality education, whether available in India or abroad. That is why more than 4.5 lakh students left India in 2022 to study in foreign universities, which is expected to reach 1.8 million soon. Most of these students go abroad not just for a foreign degree but for the experience of working in a different cultural setup and work environment. They also look for immigration after their education.

However, many other students may not be able to go abroad for financial or family reasons, and some students may like to have access to education from a foreign university but stay in India. It is to cater to the needs of these students that UGC has brought out a regulation permitting foreign universities to set up their campuses in India. UGC regulation is in tune to internationalize Indian higher education as espoused in the national education policy 2020.

Globally, there is a trend of foreign campuses needing to be more successful. How do you think India will prove to be different?

We may need to look at examples comparable to India. Our country's ecosystem is welcoming now with the ease of doing many things due to simplified processes. We are the fifth-largest economy in the world and are poised to become the third-largest. The start-up ecosystem is booming with nearly 83000 start-up companies and over 100 unicorns. There is a massive infrastructural development across the country, and we are a very stable democracy with a robust judicial system and independent media. In this background, we need to see the importance of Foreign Direct Investment in education as announced in the Union Budget on 1st February 2022.

A recent report by the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration highlights that many universities ranking in the top 200 have expressed their interest in considering India as an ideal destination, and other global universities have considered India a potential destination. Therefore, the potential for the campuses of foreign universities to run their programmes successfully is very high, unlike what happened elsewhere.

There is bound to be a fair amount of resentment among public universities in India and some concern about the poaching of faculties. Do you see that as a problem?

If you look at the employment trends in different sectors, competition for talent remains aggressive. A recent McKinsey report says that in India, "more than 60 percent of respondents expressed a desire to leave their current posts". Faculty members in educational institutes are no different. If they find a better enabling environment, they may move there. There will always be a mismatch between the need of Universities for the best talent and the number of such available teachers. Our Universities have to work to create an enabling atmosphere to retain and attract the best talent. The presence of foreign university campuses in India will help create a positive environment of healthy competition and collaboration.

Some teachers associations have raised the concerns about the affordability of the courses to be offered by the foreign universities in their campuses in India. What do you think?

Ultimately, what will become the sought-after is those educational institutions that can provide high-quality education at an affordable cost, irrespective of whether they are public or private universities. If foreign university campuses charge exorbitantly, they will only be able to attract a few students.

And to your question about tuition fees, in India, whether they are public or private universities, the tuition fees are decided by the statutory bodies of the universities. In some states, the state governments may have tuition fee regulators, but UGC does not interfere in fixing the tuition fees. The same autonomy is extended to the foreign university campuses in India as envisaged in NEP 2020. We also need to be aware that such foreign campuses will provide wider educational choices, exposure to innovative pedagogical approaches and potential for collaboration with world-class institutions. So, their entry should be considered as an opportunity rather than a threat.

The political parties opposing the move say that the regulation issued by the UGC does not have any provision for reservation in the campuses the foreign universities would open in India and would, therefore, leave out a section of underprivileged students. How does the UGC's "need-based fellowship" provision fit into that?

We know that some students may need more financial means to join such foreign university campuses in India. That is why we have introduced a clause that, based on an evaluation process, need-based partial and full scholarships may be given to the students from the foreign university's internal resources.