subject: Inviting foreign partners-- Suggestions to revamp higher education [print this page] Inviting foreign partners-- Suggestions to revamp higher education
While stress is focused on infrastructure sectors like Primary, Secondary and Higher education, power, roads and ports, the importance of soft infrastructure like Governance, law and order, stability and financial markets, they should not be diluted. India must leverage in order to become a truly global superpower. The conviction about India's demographic strengths and its ability to overtake China possibly by 2015.
Amidst this backdrop, It is felt that, Education should make the student not only knowledgeable but also mould them into a good discipline citizen with full of courage and confidence.Today the education sector has witnessed the beginning of reforms and will have to pass through a more challenging phase. Higher education has a lot of big challenges. Enactment of some legislation or introductions of certain bills are just the beginning. The road ahead is very long. There is shortage of teachers, providing education to disadvantage and physically challenged and increasing access to education still remain the major issues before the government. It is well known that it was critical about the poor participation of private sector in expanding the education infrastructure in the country. There will be a requirement of 12 lakh teachers under the Right to Education Act. Shortage of teachers is a problem. It is said there is a huge demand-supply gap in educational facilities and asked the private sector to come forward in taking education to inaccessible areas. The private sector will have to find a practical way to collaborate with the government, Further, the private sector has not done much in this sector because economy was not liberalised till 1991. It is clear that, quality of education provided by the private institutions is a matter of concern.The country was lagging behind in skill development. Only five per cent of the workforce has some skill certification. The policy is in the offing to allow private sector to use the government infrastructure like school building for skill development programmes.The government has introduced a bill in Parliament to allow foreign educational institutions to come and set up campuses in India. But, the leading universities like Harvard and Stanford may not be interested to set up campus in India in near future. They may be interested twining arrangements or offering joint degrees in collaboration with Indian institutions.
Ministry officials point out that estimated at a $100 billion industry, higher education is seeing expansion across continents. While India faces a huge internal market, its education system also commands a good reputation internationally and more so institutes like IITs that have developed as unique brands. While private institutions from India have set up management schools in Dubai and Singapore earlier, taking a full-fledged institution to foreign shores is only being considered seriously now.
Suggestions:
1. On concerns that foreign institutions may compromise with quality, they must be subjected to the same accreditation and assessment norms as domestic institutions.
2. Foreign institutes must be subjected to the same laws as IITs and other institutes here abide to. The law does not allow any discrimination.
3. If foreign institutes collaborate with state educational institutions, they will be subjected to the same law as applicable to state educational institutions. Similar laws will be followed in case of collaboration between such institutes and central universities, state universities, NAAC accredited autonomous colleges in India.
Keen to make its presence felt in the global education scene and more so in Asia, India is keenly pushing forward the Singapore government's proposal to set up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) on the island state.
The move comes soon after the launch of the CBSE International, granting affiliation to some 25 schools in West Asia and even as the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry is examining a proposal by the Qatar government to invite IITs to set up a campus there.
"The project proposal has come for an IIT in Singapore and it is being considered seriously. The Singapore Education Minister also met HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on the issue today. We hope to take the project to the IIT council soon. It is proposed that the IIT council and maybe some other central educational institutes will participate to form a society called International Institute of Technology Singapore which will in turn start the IIT," said an official.
Sibal, incidentally, has broken off from the traditional position of the HRD Ministry which has been opposed to IITs or IIMs venturing abroad, arguing that these "elite" educational institutions must focus their energies on India alone. The new dispensation in the ministry, however, believes in soft diplomacy and is keen that brand India should make a mark abroad.
Accordingly, the proposed International Institute of Technology in Singapore will provide BTech courses in sunrise sectors like energy, environment, communication & computing, design & manufacturing, international diplomacy and management, health science & technology, water resources and education. In the process it will also mark several firsts for the IIT system which still largely sticks to engineering. Marking a growth trajectory, IIT Singapore will also emphasise postgraduate education in a major way and posit itself as a pan-Asian institute.
Further, it is revealed from the sources that, Indian government had proposed to establish an Indo-Singapore Project Agency, headed by an academician, for the initiative. While India will largely assist with the intellectual capital in the venture involving IIT faculty and other academicians who will be in the core team that will prepare a Detailed project report (DPR) for the scheme, the Singapore government is expected to landscapeing for the funding arrangement and infrastructural support like land for the campus. Once the DPR is ready, it is envisaged that it would take about five years to set up the IIT Singapore and both governments would review the project every two years.
In addition to the above, It is the task of the authority would be to accredit and rate all higher educational institutions in India. In accordance with the draft legislation, the national authority along with multiple rating agencies would develop and regulate the accreditation process. These multiple agencies would be registered with the national authority and the apex body would accredit and keep a check on the rating agencies. It would also keep an eye on fly by night operators. The bill would make it mandatory for all higher educational institutions and every program of study to be accredited.
The foreign educational institutions (Regulations of entry and operations, maintenance of quality and prevention of commercialization) bill:
In a landmark decision, the foreign education bill got the cabinet nod recently. It prescribes an eight month, time bound format for granting approval to foreign educational institutions to set up campuses in India. As for the reservation policy in the higher educational institutions, the law of the land will prevail. The proposed law will facilitate overseas institutes to participate in the Indian education sector.
