According to a recent USA Today article, a growing number of United States universities are looking at the possibility of partnering with Indian higher education institutions in an effort to develop collaborative degree programs. While most aren’t actually considering opening branch campuses in India, the explosive economic growth and the increased interest in higher education within the country has U.S. colleges looking at ways to tap into that market.

Historically, India has placed restrictions on the entry of foreign higher education providers, which are not allowed to confer in-country university degrees. With regulatory framework currently out of the way, however, collaborative arrangements between private Indian institutions and foreign universities have started to grow at a rapid pace. In fact, hundreds of collaborative programs exist today, including a collaborative two-year master’s program offered through Georgia State’s business chool and the National Management School in Chennai, which is a private for-profit institution offering degrees that are not recognized by the India government.

In order to pursue an advanced degree or to obtain a government job in India, applicants must have earned a degree that is recognized by the government. When it comes to jobs within the private industry, however, a growing number of Indian students are wagering that even unrecognized degrees will help them obtain a better job. Furthermore, it appears as if steps are being taken by the Indian Parliament to change the current educational structure. In fact, the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill, which will regulate the market while creating a path for foreign universities to create branch campuses in the country, is currently pending in Parliament and is expected to be passed.

Of course, even if the bill is passed, it doesn’t mean the path toward establishing branch campuses will be without obstacles. At this point, it appears that the primary goal is to attract top universities such as Harvard University and the University of Oxford, which means many barriers are likely to be put into place in order to prevent fly-by-night educational institutions from setting up shop within the country. One of these proposed obstacles is to require the foreign university to make an initial investment of about $11 million. These funds are to be placed in a corpus fund and any profits gained cannot go back to the home country or institution. Rather, they can only be used in the further development of institutions in India.

“If we look at just these two points, it means there is no financial incentive for a foreign university to come to India,” said Rahul Choudaha, who is the associate director of development and innovation at the World Education Services as well as an expert on Indian higher education.

The proposed bill would also prevent foreign universities that are interested in operating distance education programs from setting up shop in India. This is because the bill specifically defines a “foreign educational institution” as one that offers a certificate, diploma or degree “three conventional method[s] including classroom teaching method not including distant mode.” On the other hand, the bill does not require foreign institutions to follow the quota-based affirmative action system that is currently in place in India.

“The intention of the bill is really good, and the timing is very good,” continued Choudaha. “This is a good start for clarifying the country’s policy about foreign higher education. However, as for the approach, that’s where the question marks start coming in. Creating some barriers for entry is good, but creating them so high that nobody can jump over them is unrealistic.”

Concerns regarding hurdles to higher education are echoed throughout the country, with many concerned about the relatively low number of Indian students who choose to go on to college.

“220 million children go to school,” said Kapil Sibal, who is India’s minister of human resources development, which encompasses the country’s higher education initiatives. “And of that 26 million only go to college. So there are 194 million children in India who, if the GER [gross enrollment] ratio remains the same, will never go to college. Can any country afford that?”

Sibal went on to express the need for tapping into the foreign private sector to help remedy this problem, but showed his support for regulating which universities come into the country.

“If we need 500 more universities, or 150 more, or 300 more universities, who’s going to build them?” asked Sibal. “Can the state afford to build them on its own? So we need to get the private sector. And the private sector includes not only the domestic private sector, it includes also the foreign private sector. Now we’re going to regulate that. We’re not going to let fly-by-night operators come in. We’re going to have very quality institutions come into the country.”

Although the intentions behind the efforts to keep out the fly-by-nights are certainly good, the hurdles may very well be standing between the government and its goals to increase its higher education capacity. Still, Philip G. Altbach, who is the professor and director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, believes the barriers are a good thing.

“They’ll eliminate some of the bottom-feeders that very often go into wide-open doors in poor countries and they will make it clear that you have to be serious about what you’re doing educationally in India if you want to come in,” said Altbach. “So I have no problem with them. I do think it’s going to restrict the numbers [of interested foreign universities] dramatically. That’s not what the Indians want but I think that’s what the Indians are going to get.”

Altbach went on to express concern regarding the apparent mindset that foreign institutions should lead the way in increasing the number of higher education opportunities available in the country.

“No country can or should allow foreigners to build up a higher education system,” said Altbach. “This isn’t the case for Georgia Tech or Yale or such kinds of places, but generally speaking, foreigners want to make a buck. That’s why they’re going there.”

At this point, Georgia Institute of Technology is one of just a few U.S. universities that is actually moving forward with creating branch campuses in India, though progress is slow. In fact, the university has been planning to start a post-graduate, research-oriented campus in Hyderbad for five years already. Just this past year, the institution finally signed a memorandum of understanding with Infosys, which is an information technology company, as well as with Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation in order to create research centers that are focused on advanced energy, computing and natural gas exploration. The institution’s plans to offer master’s and Ph.D. degrees, however, have been put on hold as it waits for the legislation regulating foreign universities to get passed.

“We feel that the [foreign universities] bill is moving into the right direction,” said Vijay K. Madisetti, who is a professor of electrical and computer engineering as well as the executive director of the Georgia Tech India Initiative. “So we’re putting our effort into the research side and hope it will naturally evolve into a Ph.D. operation as well.”

Virginia Tech has also announced its plans to open a campus in India. With plans to build the campus just outside Chennai, the campus will offer graduate degrees in engineering as well as in the sciences.

“This will be our first full-fledged campus outside the United States,” said S.K. De Datta, who is the associate vice president for international affairs for Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech has already signed an agreement with MARG Limited, which is a real estate development company, and has pledged 30 acres of land and $5 million in start-up costs to the effort. De Datta is hopeful that the school will be exempt from the $11 million requirement that is included in the proposed Foreign Universities Bill due to the school’s “reputation and international standing.” If the exemption is not made, the school will face significant problems with moving forward, as the school cannot devote any of its core resources to the campus because it is a state university. Rather, the school is dependent upon its private industry partner to provide all of the funds necessary.
“Certainly we will not write a check for $11 million,” said De Datta. “That will not happen.”

De Datta went on to state that the school is not looking to profit from the endeavor.

“From what I understand, the government of India is worried that many universities are coming in just to make money in India. That is certainly not in the cards for us,” said De Datta. “We’re going there as an educational enterprise because we want to be present globally.”
Of course, collaborations between foreign and Indian institutions is hardly something new. In fact, since the 1990s, foreign universities have been finding their way into the country, primarily through collaborations with private Indian higher education institutions. This has been largely due to the fact that private Indian colleges have used foreign partnerships as a means of gaining legitimacy and attracting more students to their schools.

“Overall, private higher education in India has grown outside of a clear legislative framework, and foreign education providers have had to fit within this unregulated context as they almost entirely operate in the private sector,” said Sudhanshu Bhushan, who is a professor as well as the head of the Department of Higher and Professional Education at the National University of Educational Planning and Administration in India.

According to a 2008 U.K. India Education and Research Initiative report, there were 143 Indian institutions and 161 foreign universities offering collaborative programs at the time. In all, 641 programs were being delivered through collaborations. Twinning programs, which are ones through which the two institutions jointly recognize the program and generally award joint or dual degrees, was the most popular form of collaboration. Furthermore, colleges from the United States and from the U.K. hade the largest presence, while the most popular joint programs being offered were in engineering, management or business, hotel management and information technology.

While the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which is an accrediting body, does publish a list of those foreign collaborations that are approved and those that are not, that is about the extent of the oversight that the agency provides.

“To some extent, it is a reflection of the inefficacy of the regulatory mechanism, which was already tainted with the allegations of being corrupt, bureaucratic, inflexible and out of sync with the needs of higher education,” said Choudaha. “In this context, several foreign collaborations were established outside the regulatory system, especially in the professional fields like MBA where industry recognition and employability was perceived to be more important than academic recognition. However many institutions are using [the] foreign collaborations tag to mislead students. In addition, graduates of these unrecognized institutions find it very difficult to use their credentials for further international education or immigration. Thus, foreign collaborations in India have come to a stage where genuine high quality collaborations are coexisting with poor quality, misleading, collaborations.”

According to the AICTE Website, there are only six foreign collaboration programs that have been approved, while 67 have not been. With the regulatory system put forth by the Foreign Universities Bill, both those universities that are operating independently and those that are working in collaboration with Indian institutions would be regulated. Up to this point, the lack of policy has made it difficult for the country to meaningfully assess how well the foreign educational institutions are performing. Supporters of the legislation are hopeful that it will help eliminate any unfair practices that may be taking place.