UGC’s draft regulations-2023: Opening the campus door

The draft regulations-2023 allow foreign higher educational institutions to decide a fee structure that is “transparent and reasonable”. This gives foreign branch campuses in India an upper hand in deciding different fees for different programmes. As a result, programmes with higher market value would be more expensive and not accessible to many students. Although there is a provision for “full or partial need-based scholarships”, determining “need” will be a challenging task. Will this be in tune with the NEP-2020 commitment to cater to the needs of a large section of Indian society termed “Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Groups-SEDGs” that include women, transgenders, SCs, STs, OBCs, EWS, differently abled, migrants and geographically disadvantaged groups?

Foreign higher educational institutions now have the freedom to decide “qualifications, salary structure, and other conditions of service for appointing faculty and staff”. Public higher education institutions in India follow the standard regulations (qualifications for recruitment, salary structure, and service condition) set by the UGC or state governments. However, very few private universities in India adhere to these rules. The opaque salary structure of private higher education institutions remains a cause of concern to many and, in the absence of tangible recruitment rules, the gap would further widen once foreign branch campuses are operational in India.

The history and functioning of successful foreign branch campuses worldwide (for instance, Dubai Knowledge Park) indicate that the host country provides physical infrastructure to facilitate their strategy of internationalisation of higher education. In contrast, the draft regulations-2023 state that “The Foreign Higher Educational Institutions should arrange for adequate physical infrastructure”. This provision would be problematic for foreign higher education institutions reluctant to go for major infrastructural investment and many would prefer to wait and watch for others to take the initiative. Those foreign higher education institutions that already have infrastructure in place in the form of research centres would likely be the pioneers of foreign branch campuses in India.

Foreign higher education institutions worldwide entrust their faculty members who are experts in their fields to frame the curriculum and teach it in the manner they deem fit. Two provisions of the draft regulations-2023 delimit the practice with instructions that “Foreign Higher Educational Institutions shall not offer any such programme of study which jeopardises the national interest of India or the standards of higher education in India”. And “The operation of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions shall not be contrary to the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency, or morality.”

In the case of the first provision, insofar as STEM disciplines are concerned, there would not be much of a problem. The challenge, however, lies with Humanities and Social Sciences where multiple interpretations are popular, pushing the boundaries of knowledge. Creative imagination flourishes in a society sans restrictions. The foreign faculty members may find it difficult to balance state policies, sensibilities and laissez-faire intellectual standpoint. In days to come, this is going to be a major issue in the process of knowledge creation and transaction in India.

All Indian students with foreign degrees are required to get an equivalence certificate from the Association of Indian Universities. The draft regulations-2023 waive off equivalence requirement for the degrees granted by the foreign branch campuses in India, which is a positive measure. However, it would be difficult to ensure that the degrees offered by the foreign branch campuses would be accepted by the employers in the home countries of the campuses.

India is a young nation with an increasing need for higher education and an ever-increasing demand for foreign degrees. A major bone of contention between foreign branch campuses and the Indian government had been the issue of repatriation of profit. Education in India is not a profitable enterprise — it is a public good — and the income generated from it needs to be ploughed back into it. However, the draft regulations-2023 allow for smooth repatriation of profits earned by the foreign branch campuses under the rules and regulations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) 1999.

This would certainly intensify the competition for students with merit and/or paying capacity amongst public, private, and foreign institutions in India. Whether this competition will ensure access, equity and quality of higher education, the vision of NEP-2020, would remain to be seen.

The writer is Associate Professor of Education at IILM University, Gurugram. Views are personal