UGC Draft Norms: The draft norms announced by University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairperson, Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar have finally opened the doors of Indian higher education to world-class global universities. According to the new rules, foreign universities can now set up campuses inside India. They can also decide upon their admission process, fee structure and even repatriate funds back to their parent universities situated abroad.
This move will likely help students in accessing quality higher education and also serve as much-needed competition to the Indian public and private universities. Eventually, the Indian higher education landscape will be able to attain global-level standards. Successive governments from 1995 have tried to enact legislation for the entry, operation, and regulation of foreign universities in the country. The most recent of these attempts were made by the UPA-II government in 2010, which, however, was then opposed by parties including BJP (in the Opposition at that time) and the left parties.
One of the main issues in the bill was that it would raise the cost of education in the country due to high fees and faculty poaching from public universities. It was not also clear if it would generate adequate interest from the best universities abroad to set up campuses in India.
According to official data, over 4.5 lakh Indian students went to study abroad in 2022 leading to an estimated outflow of USD 28-30 billion. However, Kumar pointed out that the living costs of students will be minimized as they will be able to access global quality education inside the country itself. This will bring down overall educational expenses.
The latest UGC draft also seeks to incentivize the setting up of campuses in India by allowing full autonomy to foreign higher education institutions, especially the ability to repatriate funds back to parent universities. Govt officials said that the enormous target segment of 18-23 individuals, of whom only a quarter are enrolled in higher education institutions, will also serve as a motivator for foreign institutions to set up campuses in India.
Although, it remains to be seen if the extensive financial and operational autonomy will be enough to attract globally well-respected academic institutions.
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