Prime Minister Modi has taken a bold step for India towards allowing leading foreign universities such as Yale, Oxford and Stanford to set up campuses and award degrees as part of an overhaul of the South Asian nation’s higher education.
Source- Gulf News
On Thursday, 5 January, UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar announced draft norms for establishing campuses of foreign higher educational institutions in the country in line with the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 and invited suggestions and feedback from the public on the same.
The local campus can decide on admission criteria for domestic and foreign students, fee structure and scholarship, according to the draft. The institutions will have the autonomy to recruit faculty and staff. The move will also help overseas institutions to tap the nation’s young population.
According to the draft norms, universities who want to set up their campuses in India should be ranked within the top 500 of overall or subject-wise global rankings. Universities, who have secured subject-wise ranking, will be allowed to offer the same subjects in their Indian campuses. The draft regulation does not mention anything about reservations norms for these foreign universities which means that they will be free to decide if they wish to provide reservation for certain students in their Indian campuses.
Some universities have already set up partnerships with Indian institutions, allowing students to partially study in India and complete their degrees on the main campus abroad. The current move will encourage these overseas institutions to set up campuses without local partners. The foreign institutes coming to India will be allowed to offer undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral, post-doctoral, and other programs, award degrees, diplomas, and certificates in all disciplines.
