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Special Report

few Central government-funded in- tinctive cultural consciousness and
stitutions such as the IITs, IIMs and world-view. India’s deepest thinkers
Delhi University and a handful of pri- and intellectuals Sri Aurobindo and
vate universities, the majority of the Rabindranath Tagore envisioned the
country’s HEIs are mediocre institu- university as a deep well and centre
tions plagued with infrastructure and of history and culture rooted in the
faculty shortages and provide unful- Indian context from which knowl-
filling higher education not respected edge, ideas and innovations relating
by India Inc and government which to teaching the social sciences, art
run their own job entrance exams. As and literature in particular, would
alluded earlier, even the best struggle emerge. The entry of foreign univer-
to make it into the Top 200 of QS and sities will provide further impetus to
Times Higher Education global rank- the process of grafting alien cultural-
ings. consciousness and world-view on to
M OREOVER WHILE Bhatt: welcome safeguards process which began during the Brit-
our higher education institutions. This
ish Raj remained uncorrected after
more affordable than
studying abroad, tu-
education system has failed miserably
ition fees levied by government could withdraw from independence. As a result, our higher
branch campuses of FHEIs are like- the boards,” suggests Prof. Geeta and our cultural consciousness has
ly to be several multiples of those Bhatt, director of the Non-Collegiate substantially diminished, force-fitted
charged by Indian HEIs rendering Women’s Education Board, Delhi Uni- into social theories developed to un-
FHEI branch campuses ‘ elitist’. Their versity. derstand a different cultural milieu.
major contribution is likely to be by While academics such as Dr. Geeta A large number of foreign, especially
way of raising standards and setting Bhatt welcome foreign universities British schools and universities, set-
new benchmarks in higher educa- with conditions, Left academics are ting standards and benchmarks in
tion — a long-term benefit. The UGC wholly opposed to their entry. They Indian education will result in com-
regulations which permit the entry of contend that this initiative will exacer- pletion of Lord Macaulay’s agenda
FHEIs into India is no substitute for bate inequalities in Indian education, of transforming middle class Indians
the long-term and onerous task of up- and more important, graft western, into second class Englishmen, result-
grading and reforming India’s 42,000 alien cultural consciousness on to our ing in schizophrenic moral codes and
colleges and 1,126 universities. higher education institutions. jingoistic nationalism for self-asser-
Meanwhile even though the domi- “Every nation has its own dis- tion,” Rohit Dhankar, professor
nant opinion within the academy is APU's Dhankar (centre): alien cultural consciousness
that the UGC Regulations 2023 are
unlikely to enthuse the world’s best
FHEIs, some academics welcome
them. “The UGC Regulations are in
line with NEP 2020 recommenda-
tions to establish a legal and regula-
tory framework for FHEIs operating
campuses in India. During the initial
phase, clear standard operating proce-
dures are needed to establish a robust
framework for foreign universities
establishing campuses in India, and
to prevent sub-par and fraudulent
institutions from exploiting Indian
students. I would also suggest that
initially, it would be advisable to have
an Indian representative preferably
from the government on the Board of
Governors of the Indian campuses of
FHEIs. With the passage of time after
the initial problems are ironed out,

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