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Special Report

HALF-HEARTED INVITATION TO

FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES

Bristling with a gamut of discretionary rules, regulations and
conditions, the UGC (Setting up and Operation of Campuses of
Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India) Regulations, 2023,
is unlikely to enthuse top-ranked foreign universities to establish
owned campuses in India

Summiya Yasmeen

S EVENTEEN YEARS AFTER THE Na- been permitted to establish sprawling new campuses with

tional Knowledge Commission head-
their trademark superior infrastructure in India, there’s
ed by US-based billionaire techno-
growing awareness that the conditions and regulations fine
print is less than inviting. UGC’s five-page notification set-
crat Sam Pitroda first recommended
ting out the terms and conditions for entry of FHEIs which
the entry of foreign higher education
institutions (FHEIs) into India, the
BJP government at the Centre has
discretionary rules and regulations that are likely to put off
given the formal greenlight for them enjoy real autonomy back home, bristles with a gamut of
their management boards.
to establish campuses on Indian terra For a start, every applicant foreign university should be
firma. ranked among the global Top 500 by agencies approved by
On November 7, the Delhi-based University Grants UGC “from time to time”. Next, the applicant foreign uni-
Commission (UGC) notified the UGC (Setting up and Op- versity must give an undertaking that the degrees/qualifica-
eration of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Insti- tions it awards are “at par with that of the main campus in
tutions in India) Regulations, 2023, providing a legal and the country of origin” and that “the qualifications awarded
regulatory framework for foreign universities to establish to the students in the Indian campus shall be recognised
owned campuses in India. According to Prof. Jagadesh and treated as equivalent to the corresponding qualifica-
Kumar, UGC chairman, the regulations will “facilitate the tions awarded by the FHEI in the main campus located in
entry of FHEIs into India in line with the National Educa- the country of origin for all purposes, including higher edu-
tion Policy (NEP) 2020 recommendations and provide an cation and employment”.
international dimension to higher education in India”. There are other stringent conditions imposed upon
However, not many in Indian academia — or in the head FHEIs thinking of tapping into the world’s largest higher
offices of universities abroad — are enthused by the regula- education market. The fees structure should be “transpar-
tions. After initial euphoria of foreign universities having ent and reasonable”; “the qualifications of the faculty ap-

76 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2024