UGC move to allow foreign universities to set up in India worth cheering

By Nish Acharya
Last week marked an important turning point for higher education in India. At the Chief Learning Officers Summit in Mumbai, we heard clearly from corporate India’s leading human resources managers about the need to boost the scale and quality of talent it is producing.

Additionally, the University Grants Commission of India announced that foreign universities would be allowed to set up in India. This opens up huge opportunities for the world’s greatest and most influential universities to bring a broad set of programs to the Indian market. There will be some restrictions, such as the ridiculous notion that only universities ranked (by a random third party) in the top 500 globally can enter, and that they must be non-profit in stature.

The reality is that this policy will only be a positive for India. India’s leaders have already identified higher education has an area where the nation must scale and improve.

The Next Five Years

American universities can play a critical role in this growth. First, America’s colleges and universities have a variety of programs – for undergraduates, graduates, professionals, part-time students, executives, researchers, online students and distance learners. Secondly, the vast majority of American colleges are non-profit. They were set up by private trusts or by religious groups or as land grant universities, launched with US government funds.

Furthermore, in the United States, the attainability of a college degree has grown over the last century. Rather than being something for society’s elites, a college education has become something that the middle class and working class can attain. Colleges and universities exist for all types of students, and financial aid that is backed by the US government is available and guaranteed for any student.

Already, a broad set of American universities have launched programs in India. Several leading American universities, including the Ivy League, University of California system and others, have undergraduate exchange programs with various IITs and IIMs. The American Association of Universities (AAU) represents the 50 largest research universities in America and they are all keen to conduct more research with their Indian colleagues, and build the capacity of Indianuniversities to conduct research. This is critical as Indian universities currently lag behind their global colleagues in research capacity and discovery. American universities see great opportunities in professional and executive education categories.

India would be wise to remove the requirement that the institution must be arbitrarily ranked in the top 500 global universities, however. Research ratings and test scores, for example, are only partially-relevant measures for India if it is truly seeking to have 200 million additional college graduates in the next 10 years, as India@75 strives for. For India to reach that, it needs a diversity of approaches. It should look at the American community college system, which has made a publicly-subsidised college education available to a great portion of society.

One of the best models I ever worked with in India was the Indo-US Collaboration for Engineering Education, which focused on connecting 2nd-tier engineering colleges in the US and India. They have reached thousands of India faculty through this program with more relevance than if an elite institution had tried the same.

The next few years are going to be very exciting. Universities from around the world will be coming to India – looking to make a difference and develop a foothold. India should embrace this opportunity and provide its citizens with the opportunity to choose from the global array of learning opportunities. India’s best will continue to compete, as they have in every other segment of society and industry.

The author is a former Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce for the Obama Administration.