35 US varsities mull setting up shop in India

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35 US varsities mull setting up shop in India


New Delhi, Sept 29
Foreign education providers, it appears, can’t wait to set up shop in India. Just a fortnight after Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal mentioned that fair progress had been made on India’s foreign education providers’ bill, 35 US universities are lining up to visit India to discuss future collaborations.

The top fields emerging for partnerships are international law, terrorism, aerospace, energy, sensors, nanotechnology, robotics, biomedical technology and information security.

The US universities will be participating in the Indo-US Education Summit on academic collaborations scheduled for November in Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bangalore. The summit will start from New Delhi on November 8, said S. B. Anumolu, a former IPS officer now settled in the US, where he runs a foundation with a motto “Educational Excellence without Borders” -- something Kapil Sibal has been talking about, of late.The summit is being organised in the backdrop of India’s decision to liberalise its education sector. Expected to attend the conference are university provosts, deans, and other officers of around 35 US universities. Several hundred Indian institutions and organisations interested in collaborations will also be part of the affair.

Some of the A-list universities set to participate in the conference include Tufts, Case Western, Northeastern, Florida State, Southern Illinois-Carbondale, Clarkson, Concordia (Canada), Drexel, Oregon, Rochester, Massachusetts-Boston, South Dakota Tech, Wisconsin, and Widener.

Their areas of interest include science, engineering, medicine, biotechnology, environment and management. Anumolu today told The Tribune that there were more than 600 major fields of study in the US at various levels, including associate (two years), Bachelor’s (four years), Master’s (two years), and doctoral (three to five years).

The on-campus programmes to be offered in India by American universities in collaboration with Indian institutions would be degree, diploma, and certificate programmes at all levels. As per plans, students will receive degrees of the US universities after successful completion of their programmes in India. Importantly, through these programmes, Indian students will be able to earn several credits during the course of their normal study in Indian institutions. They will have the opportunity either to complete their studies at home or transfer their credits to the US universities at any time after completing at least one year of study in India. Students opting for transfer can then finish their degree programmes by completing the remaining credits in residence at the American universities, said Anumolu.

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Foreign varsities come calling
Aim to keep check on fraudulent education agents


Chandigarh, March 4
Setting up a new trend, foreign universities are now visiting the city directly to select students in order to check role of fraudulent education agents in the region.

Ranked eighth among public colleges in the US by Forbes.com, the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), a research university, organised a press conference at Hotel Taj today announcing its new courses.

The university is one of the first ones in the US, which is directly coming to India to scout for the right candidates for their grad and higher-level courses. These “unique” courses include bachelor degree in motor sports engineering, bachelor degree in health science and bachelor of arts in philanthropic studies.

Officials informed that the motor sports industry had been growing at a rapid pace and Indiana, North Carolina and England were home to the world’s leading motor sports economies.

IUPUI’s centre on philanthropy has also pioneered the field of philanthropic studies and created the world’s first postgraduate and PhD degrees in philanthropic studies-Indiana University degrees, informed the officials.

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Limited education
Foreign universities coming here for profit

The opening and operation of foreign universities in India is an important issue. There may be a heavy rush of students in theses institutions as they will get the degree of a foreign university. At the end, it is not sure whether these students would find a lucrative job, if training given to these students is non-competitive.

On the contrary, foreign governments may not allow to open Indian universities on their land and even if it is so, there will not be students to take admission in these universities for obvious reasons and hence it will not be an economically viable proposal.

Therefore, the opening of foreign universities on Indian land will not be on equal academic and economic footings. To avoid any kind of exploitation on either side, all the collaborative programmes of creative and dispersive higher education should be designed to the benefit of the Indian population which needs a definite development in the global and national context. The best way to achieve this is that foreign activities in higher education in India should be regularised through the Indian education system, either governed by the Government or semi-government organisations.

Higher education has two ingredients: (1) creation of knowledge through research in the basic principles to understand complexities of the phenomenon and to use this knowledge for the development of new technologies for the comprehensive growth of all living beings and (2) teaching of graduate and professional courses with information of the latest developments in the disciplines concerned.

However, it is further emphasised that the creation of new knowledge through research is very basic for the quality teaching of graduate and professional courses. A foreign institution of higher education without first-rate research programmes cannot justify the quality teaching to graduate and professional course students in India.

In the modern concept “knowledge is the property”. Every country protects its research knowledge to keep up the pride and priority. Patents are registered for economic gains in the process of global industrialisation. Mostly, in the foreign collaborative research programmes, Indian researchers work in foreign laboratories. However, the outcome of this research programmes remains the property and patent of the host nation. Although Indian researchers do get experience to work back at home. The above academic and economic imbalance has to be addressed in collaborative higher education programmes.

There are very few occasions, mostly in arts and culture education where researchers from abroad work in India for a substantial time and research output are shared by both countries.

Foreign universities are keen on soft knowledge expansion i.e. teaching programmes for graduate and professional courses pertinent to the market forces. However, the following facts should also be kept in view.

The Indian young population is growing at a faster rate as compared to the developed countries. In the present situation, it is assumed that India does not have the desired infrastructure to provide the required education to the young students.

Due to economic progress of the country, the income of the middle class population has increased. Their family size is small and parents are in a position to spend any amount of money for their child’s education for a degree which helps in searching a financially lucrative job anywhere in the world.

Indian psychology still persists that a degree of any foreign university is superior to an equivalent degree of Indian universities, although it is not at all true except a few leading universities in Europe and the US, specially in science subjects.

In view of these facts, developed countries are keen to collaborate in the knowledge dispersive (teaching of graduate and professional courses) part of higher education for well-defined economic gains.

In my opinion, as we are aware of problems of regional and national developments, India should strongly interact and adopt the experience of foreign universities, but keeping in view the geography, culture, historical background and other regional and national interests. It is very likely that due to geographical and cultural attitude differences foreign education may be of limited use to us and vice versa.

In conclusion, we should have all the collaborative programmes for national and regional developments through Indian educational institutions with all modifications and modulations in the context of Indian circumstances.

The writer is a UGC Emeritus Fellow and Professor of Physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh

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Foreign varsity Bill tabled in LS
All pending higher education reform Bills also moved
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100504/nation.htm#1

New Delhi, May 3
It was Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal’s day in the Lok Sabha, where he successfully introduced the controversial Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill 2010 along with three pending higher education reform legislation.

These include the Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical and Medical Educational Institutions and Universities Bill 2010 to penalise educational malpractices like disregard for prospectus promises by institutes and charging of capitation fee; the Educational Tribunals Bill 2010 to establish national and state educational tribunals to adjudicate complaints related to the sector and the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill 2010 to make accreditation for higher educational institutions mandatory through registered accreditation agencies.

Currently, less than one-fifth of the colleges and one-third of the universities in India are accredited.

DMK-engineered chaos over 2G Spectrum allocation came to Sibal’s advantage as he introduced the Bills, especially the foreign education providers’ Bill which the Opposition had vowed to stall. But today, the sole objection came from CPM’s Basudeb Acharia, who termed the Bill anti-national and commercial. The minister rejected the objection as invalid, saying it was not based on “legislative competence”.

Sibal, it is learnt, reached out to leaders of all opposition parties to enable the introduction of the Bill today. “I told the leaders that no special preference would be given to foreign education providers. Moreover, anyone who has an objection can raise it when the Bill goes to the standing committee,” Sibal told TNS. He has clarified that the quota regime would not apply to foreign providers, which would be on a par with “private unaided institutes” in India.

The Bill seeks to allow foreign education providers to establish campuses in India and award degrees/diplomas but not without being recognised and notified by the Centre. These providers would have to impart education in conformity with the standards laid down by the Indian statutory authority. They won’t be allowed to plough back profits to the home country and would have to maintain a corpus of Rs 50 crore. The Centre can refuse to notify an institution as foreign education provider if it feels the move is “not in the interest of sovereignty, integrity of India, security of state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency, morality or sensitivity of location of the said institution.” Violation of the Act can lead to withdrawal of recognition.

Also, anyone found making false claims of being a foreign education provider would be penalised with not less than Rs 10 lakh, extending up to Rs 50 lakh.

Sibal’s assurances

* No special preference to foreign education providers
* Quota not to apply to foreign providers
* Foreign providers to be on par with private unaided institutes



Hallmark Of Education Bills

The Educational Tribunals Bill 2010

* Provides for establishment of state, national educational tribunals for speedy redressal of complaints
* State tribunals to hear teachers' grievances, issues related to college's affiliation and unfair practices by institutions
* National Tribunal to hear disputes between institution and any statutory authority
* Upon completion of terms, chairpersons, members of tribunals can't be reemployed in higher education institute for five years
* Parties that don't comply with tribunal orders face imprisonment up to 3 years or fine up to 10 lakh or both

Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical, Medical Educational Institutions and Universities Bill, 2010

* Bans acceptance of admission fee/charges except those stated in prospectus; mandates issue of receipt against payments
* Bans admission without admission test when mandated by statutory authority; mandates prospectus publication and quality related disclosures
* Bans demand of capitation fee/withholding of degree of student who leaves institute
* Prescribes penalty up to 50 lakh for institutes disregarding prospectus promises; one lakh for seeking donation (made cognizable offence) or issuing misleading ads.
* Educational tribunals to hear complaints

The National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Education Institutions Bill 2010

* Mandates accreditation of every higher educational institution and its programme through registered accreditation agencies
* National Accreditation Regulatory Authority to be set up to register, monitor accreditation agencies, audit their accounts, evolve code of ethics
* Accreditation agency which violates the code to be penalized up to Rs 5 lakh




JEE Errors
Super 30 rejects IIT remedy, seeks re-exam


New Delhi, May 3
A day after the IITs made public the remedies they proposed to offer students affected by a slew of errors in the JEE question banks, Super 30 -- a reputed JEE training group based in Bihar -- today rejected the “compensation formula hence prescribed” as “futile”.

“If the IITs honestly review how their proposed remedies would work, they will know the remedies are useless. The only thing that will ensure justice to lakhs of students who have been disadvantaged due to the JEE errors is a re-conduct of the exam,” said Anand Kumar, founder of Super 30, which is known for handpicking poor students from Bihar and preparing them to crack the JEE.

It was Kumar’s intervention earlier that led to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar writing a letter to HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, who then ordered the IITs to work on a remedial strategy.

But the strategy seems to be cutting little ice with those affected, as Kumar today said he would step up the agitation in the interest of lakhs of students who simply did not attempt the questions in the Hindi version or were misled by the mismatch between the maths and physics section of the paper and by the instructions that followed.

“The only option is a re-examination,” Kumar said, adding that he would again meet Nitish to hammer the point. The Hindi version of the JEE had major problems as it showed some questions carrying three marks each instead of eight, making students drop the section as it would anyway fetch low scores.

“When a student has not even attempted a question, how will the Joint Admission Board of IITs propose a remedy for him? He is invisible in that sense and all due to the IIT mistakes,” said Kumar.