Govt shelves foreign varsities bill

However,with the last Parliament session of the present Government in the offing,it looks like the Bill is once again doomed to oblivion. “The Bill will not be taken to Parliament now. There was no consensus on the Bill. It is on the backburner,” said a top Government official.

The National Knowledge Commission,the high profile PM backed panel,had also called for liberalising policies to allow foreign universities to set up centres in the country to create a more competitive educational environment and thereby bring about qualitative changes in the existing Indian university system. The Left parties,however,had alleged that this would amount to increasing privatisation of education.

CPM leader Brinda Karat had earlier written to Singh saying,”As you know,democratic opinion in the country is firmly against such a proposal (entry of the foreign universities). In the ongoing negotiations in WTO,there is tremendous pressure from the developed countries to put higher education under General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)….The foreign universities will actually permit such an opening up,pre-empting even the WTO discussions.” The Left parties were not convinced by the HRD Ministry’s assurances that their concerns would be addressed and controls and regulations applied to such institutes.

Foreign universities are currently not allowed to offer degree courses in India. However,over 100 foreign education providers offer joint courses with Indian varsities under an arrangement where part of the course is conducted in India and the rest abroad. This Bill was proposed as a measure to ensure that such foreign collaborations with varsities in the country are valid and legal and students are protected from enrolling in fake varsities.