Internationalisation of higher education as part of key second generation reform is a long overdue since the country went for the pathbreaking economic liberalisation in the 1990s.
One of the less debated yet most consequential recommendations of the recently released National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is in regard to the internationalisation of higher education sector. With a clear goal of making India a “global study destination” — the NEP has charted an ambitious roadmap for making internationalisation of higher education a reality by 2030. This is very much evident when the NEP states that “selected universities, for example, those from among the top 100 universities in the world will be facilitated to operate in India. A legislative framework facilitating such entry will be put in place, and such universities will be given special dispensation regarding regulatory, governance, and content norms on par with other autonomous institutions of India.” Accordingly, the Ministry of Education is preparing the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) bill to pave way for foreign universities to open their branches in India. For instance, the Clause 20(4) of the draft HECI Bill 2020, specifies that “the Commission may lay down norms and accord approvals for setting up campuses in India by highly reputed foreign universities in the manner prescribed.” Beyond facilitating foreign universities, the NEP aims at encouraging high performing Indian universities to set up campuses in other countries and forge collaboration and joint ventures with top global universities.
There are pressing reasons behind the NEP’s strong pitch for opening up of India’s higher education sector to the world. One, despite having second largest higher education system in the world, none of its 990 universities and 40,000 colleges figure in the World University Rankings. Further, the country ranks as low as 72 among 132 countries in the latest Global Talent Competitive Index which gauges country’s current ability to grow and attract talents. One of the key reasons for this is education bureaucracy’s prolonged stranglehold over higher education system preventing innovation and expansion of the sector. Two, with gross ratio enrolment over 26 percent and expected to grow further (50 percent by 2035 as per NEP projection), India’s mammoth higher education sector is ready for massification. Given the size and growth prospects, India has the potentials to emerge as a top destination for global universities. Three, top foreign universities would bring in capital, latest education technology, innovative pedagogy and facilitate institution mobility that is missing in India. Their mere presence let alone collaboration and partnerships can spur competition and innovation among Indian universities. Fourth, with shortage of high-quality educational institutions, there is a steady flight of quality students to foreign countries for higher degrees. In 2019 alone, some 750,000 students went for abroad to pursue higher studies. On an average, students spend $15 billion per year to earn these degrees. Therefore, by having top foreign institutions, students can obtain these degrees in the country at a much lower cost.
The idea of opening up of India’s higher education sector took its roots during the initial phase of country’s economic reforms. The Congress Party-led coalition government which ushered a series of economic reforms and liberalisation in 1991 brought up the Foreign Education Bill in 1995. However, due to stiff resistance from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and strong reservations from its own allies, the bill was shelved. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) tried to give a push again in 2006 with a fresh draft which could not make it beyond the Union Cabinet. The most recent attempt was by the UPA-II in 2010 in the shape of the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill, which too failed to see the light of day due to vociferous opposition from the BJP.
One of the key reasons for the BJP to vehemently oppose the bill was for the fact that the entry of foreign universities would raise the cost of education, rendering it out of reach for a large part of the population. In fact, similar concerns were raised by the parliamentary standing committee in 2012 which warned that the higher education ecosystem of India would be significantly disrupted by the inclusion of foreign universities as autonomous institutions. The Committee further observed that foreign universities might not respond to the real needs of the nation as education for the masses will not receive the priority and the fee structures won’t be inclusive if the incentive for the foreign universities is profit making. Moreover, it could lead to an exodus of academicians from public universities to these foreign campuses. It would further deepen the crisis of the falling quality of education and funding in public universities. Ironically, the BJP which was part of the Standing Committee and opposed the entry of foreign universities is today facilitating same narrative.
The internationalisation of higher education involves the easy mobility of students, faculty, programmes, institutions and other core elements across countries. While this can potentially transform country’s ailing higher education system, it is easier said than done. First, will the proposed measures including a robust legislative framework that intends to provide greater clarity on regulatory, governance and related norms for foreign entities be sufficient incentives for top universities to set up their campuses in India? While the sheer size of India’s higher education sector may look very attractive, most Anglo-American universities are currently experiencing significant drop in enrolments, financial crises, deep budget cuts among others. This apart, the experiences from Singapore, Malaysia and the Middle East suggest that funds for such ventures largely come from the respective governments or local partners. Thus, this is going to be a tough challenge. What further complicates such prospects however is the over ambitious target of restricting the entry to top 100 universities. Such criterion ignores the fact that so many top institutions do not participate in QS World University ranking yet could take interest in India.
Second, a major hurdle to the NEP mission comes from curating a robust legal framework that can create a regulatory environment to the satisfaction of foreign institutions. India’s education system is notoriously bureaucratic and inert. To be able to operate, foreign entities require adequate academic autonomy to decide course content, admission policies, fees structure, faculty recruitment policies, governance among others. Will the proposed HECI bill be able to address the tensions of regulation and institutional freedom in higher education sector? Will it be able to dismantle the tightly homogenous structures and processes that promote rigid hierarchical governance, uniform thinking, lack of tolerance for diversity and little experimentation? Thus, a legislation laying out regulatory norms and processes would not automatically ensure required operational freedom for these universities.
Third, while the entry of top foreign universities is likely to have a domino effect on rigid and slothful manner in which most public universities operate in India, yet there is high probability of best faculty members from these universities being poached by the high paying foreign entities. This may further accelerate flight of best faculty members from an already stressed public universities. Again, there are legitimate apprehensions which were earlier raised by the Standing Committee report and the current ruling party while in opposition that opening up of branches by top foreign universities may not prevent the exodus of aspiring students. A number of factors including university’s reputation, scholarship opportunities, foreign exposure and importantly post-study job opportunities would likely to influence their decisions.
Finally, the key objective behind the public-funded universities has been to provide quality education at subsidised rates to the masses. The same fits in with the ideals of providing an inclusive pedagogy based on the welfare state ideals to create better opportunities for individuals from marginal groups who do not have accessibility to institutions in their locations. The entry of foreign universities is likely to impact the aspects of inclusion. Neither the NEP nor the HECI bill elaborate how India’s public universities opening branches/campuses in other countries will help out the education system at home and at what cost. Ironically, the state share of the budget for education in the GDP has fallen in recent years.
To conclude, internationalisation of higher education as part of key second generation reform is a long overdue since the country went for the pathbreaking economic liberalisation in the 1990s. Despite numerous efforts since 1995, coalition politics and political opportunism have prevented significant forward movement in India’s highly controlled education sector which is poorly reflected in country’s low position in the global university ranking systems. With full political majority, the BJP-led government appears to be determined to take the internationalisation of higher education forward. However, having enabling legislation on regulation and governance is the easy part. It has to be seen how the government of the day transforms a deeply entrenched education bureaucracy and a broken ecosystem that deters innovation and out-of-box thinking. In short, from creating right legal framework, effective regulation, enabling governance mechanisms, sustained financial support to right ecosystem, internationlisation of higher education sector and simultaneous overhauling of existing public universities would require imagination and strong political and administrative leadership.
Niranjan Sahoo is Senior Fellow and Jibran Khan is Research Intern at ORF.
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Niranjan Sahoo, PhD, is a Senior Fellow with ORF’s Governance and Politics Initiative. With years of expertise in governance and public policy, he now anchors ...
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