Kapil Sibal, minister of human resource development, is full of enthusiasm, as he has cleared the draft for the Foreign Education Providers (Regulation) Bill to be placed before the Union cabinet. Once the cabinet cle­ars the bill, the foreign education providers will be able to offer degree programmes independently in India.

But before we talk about the costs and benefits that come as a part of the new bill, we must remember that more recently foreign education pr­oviders could, and have operated in India. Actually, even without the bill, it is possible to have 100 per cent foreign-owned educational institutes in India. Besides, about 150 foreign universities already offer degree programmes in partnership with different Indian institutes, where the students study a part of the programme in India. One such successful tie-up is the SSN School of Advanced Software Engineering (SSN SASE) in Chennai in association with the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), USA for the latter’s Master of Science degree programme in IT with specialisation in software engineering (MSIT-SE).”

As part of the programme, the first year is conducted in the SSN SASE. In this period, the students complete core courses, prerequisites, electives and project work. On successful completion of the one-year curriculum in India, students get a certificate from SSN SASE. They then proceed to CMU, to complete the remaining part of their course and obtain the MSIT degree from Carnegie Mellon.

If the foreign collaboration is already possible, then one might ask as to how the new bill helps? The new bill will allow foreign education prov­iders to set up “independent colleges” that will be treated as deemed universities, offering independent degrees wi­thout having to seek affiliation from an Indian university or tying up with one in partnership. These colleges will probably be under the UGC’s supervision, going thr­ough so­me sort of accreditation pro­cess and a regular annual review.

In India, perhaps, the main problem has not been in the provision of education at the college level but in the mix of regulatory framework that is associated with it. The problem is that allowing foreign universities in India is a double-edged sword: if the foreign players are not regulated effectively, it will invite in many not-so-good institutes; on the other hand, if it is over-regulated, the top universities, including Harvard, MIT, Berkeley and CMU, will stay away. The bill does nothing to change the regulatory framework of education. But given that the AICTE has recently been sidelined and that the Union government has shown intent to crack down on corruption in education licensing, we might hope that some change will be forthcoming in the future for proper regulation.

But there is another interesting aspect of the bill: it might fail to attract top US universities. This is because the top universities have so far resisted the temptation to open even in EU despite the apparent size of their market there. But more importantly, the top US universities are known to be the money guzzling machines.

They charge hefty sums of money and make their graduate master’s programmes practically unaffordable to the man­y middle-class Indian families. By operating in India, th­ese universities will not be able to generate the same kind of financial resources that they are able to do while operating in the US. The same reason mi­ght not let these universities to open campuses in India.

However, there is little do­ubt that once this bill is in place, there will be a number of educational institutions th­at will be set up in India. The question is what these schools might be? Probably, a number of middle-ranked EU and US universities would wa­nt to ha­ve an India campus, given the fact that they are not the top universities and cannot attract Indian graduates to come to them by default in their native lands.

The other interesting question is how much money (foreign exchange), which Indian students spend on education abroad, does the foreign education providers help India save? First, the bill might see a new tide of globalisation of education in the country.

It might very well be, as it has happened in the past with other consumer products, that Indian campuses of foreign un­iversities will compete with the existing domestic ones, wh­ich overcharge. This competition and price war will definitely bring some price rationalisation to the India’s degree baz­aar where the existing cost of education will go down.

Perhaps, the most relevant thing to see is the bill’s effect to promote much lacking rese­arch in the country. Ideally, the bill should also find ways of encouraging original research. In fact, research is one area where the foreign universities can make a world of difference to Indian students and India, and, there must be ways to encourage some research funds available with these universities to flow into India.

As Kapil Sibal shows the much-needed enthusiasm, in­terest and activism in the education sector in India, th­ere remain many challenges and unanswered questions. For now, all credit of taking the initiative goes to him; for bestowing future credit only time will tell

(The writer is a doctoral

scholar at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh,

and knowledge editor of

Financial Chronicle)