Foreign universities wait for govt guidelines to set up campuses in India

NEW DELHI: Foreign universities are waiting for the Indian government to formalise guidelines so that they could set up campuses in the country, according to top officials at the University of South Australia (UNiSA). They termed India's move to let foreign universities operate in the country as a major development.

"Many universities in Australia and other countries are waiting for the guidelines to be formalised," Rishen Shekhar, director, Global Recruitment and Engagement, UNiSA told PTI. "We already deliver similar hybrid models in countries like Malaysia, Singapore, and China but we haven't done it in India so far due to the regulations. We can replicate the same in India but we need to understand the legislations first," he added.

The new National Education Policy (NEP) states that the world's top 100 universities will be "facilitated" to operate in the country through a new law. NEP 2020 is only the third major revamp of the education framework in India since Independence. The two earlier policies were brought in 1968 and 1986. Tom Steer, chief academic officer at UniSA, said so far the engagement between India and Australia in the education sector was limited to research and student exchange. "NEP is an extremely positive policy because it really will make studying at international universities not only more accessible but also relevant," he said.

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The top officials were part of a contingent which recently visited Delhi to promote the "Bachelor of Digital Business Degree" course. Over 1,600 Indian students are enrolled in different courses at UNiSA. The University Grants Commission (UGC) had in April approved regulations for Indian and foreign higher educational institutions to offer joint or dual degrees and twinning programmes.

According to the approved regulations, a "twinning programme" will be a collaborative arrangement whereby students enrolled with an Indian higher educational institution may undertake their programmes of study partly in India, complying with the relevant UGC regulations, and partly in a foreign higher educational institution. The UGC had, however, clarified that no franchise arrangement or study centre, "whether overtly or covertly, by whatever nomenclature used, between a foreign higher educational institution and an Indian higher educational institution shall be allowed under these regulations"