The Foreign Educational Institution(Regulation of Entry and Operation) Bill, 2010, which paves the way for foreign education providers set up campuses in India and offer degrees will result in internal brain drain, feels All India Federation of University and College Teachers Organisation (AIFUCTO). Their entry in no way will enhance choices, increase competition and benchmark quality as opined by HRD minister Kapil Sibal.
Foreign universities who set shop here will have to depend on local teaching faculty and they will not be getting their teachers to teach here. This will only take away quality teachers from public funded higher education institutions across India and weaken them, noted A James William, president, AIFUCTO. The union government has lined up a list of bills pertaining to higher education which will end up weakening higher education sector in India.
James who participated in the AGM of AMUCT in an informal chat with TOI, said move to set up National Commission for Higher Education and Research replacing statutory bodies regulating higher education is one such bill. Bills pertaining to setting up of educational tribunals, a national accreditation regulatory authority and prohibition of unfair practices in universities, technical and medical educational institutions are the others, he said.
While the aims and objectives of these bills may appear noble at a cursory glance, they would do more harm to Indian higher education sector than any good, he noted. Most of the foreign universities seeking entry in to India do not have any good standing back home. It will be their endeavour to squeeze out maximum profits from Indians and repatriate funds back home to sustain their educational set up, he said, discounting official claims to the contrary.
Ruing the lack of public funding in higher education, James said the Kothari Commission in 1964 had recommended that India spend 6% of its GDP on higher education. Nearly 50-years down the line, India is still spending 4% of its GDP on education, he said adding that this should have been far greater given the current thrust and need for higher education now compared to the mid 1960s, when the need for it was not so acutely felt.
On the issue of autonomy to colleges, James observed that managements of most colleges have grossly misused it. Autonomous colleges have finance and administrative autonomy and not academic autonomy, he said adding that even the deemed university status given to colleges has been misused prompting the Supreme Court to step in. Deemed university status should be given to select colleges in a particular field, James noted.
Foreign universities who set shop here will have to depend on local teaching faculty and they will not be getting their teachers to teach here. This will only take away quality teachers from public funded higher education institutions across India and weaken them, noted A James William, president, AIFUCTO. The union government has lined up a list of bills pertaining to higher education which will end up weakening higher education sector in India.
James who participated in the AGM of AMUCT in an informal chat with TOI, said move to set up National Commission for Higher Education and Research replacing statutory bodies regulating higher education is one such bill. Bills pertaining to setting up of educational tribunals, a national accreditation regulatory authority and prohibition of unfair practices in universities, technical and medical educational institutions are the others, he said.
While the aims and objectives of these bills may appear noble at a cursory glance, they would do more harm to Indian higher education sector than any good, he noted. Most of the foreign universities seeking entry in to India do not have any good standing back home. It will be their endeavour to squeeze out maximum profits from Indians and repatriate funds back home to sustain their educational set up, he said, discounting official claims to the contrary.
Ruing the lack of public funding in higher education, James said the Kothari Commission in 1964 had recommended that India spend 6% of its GDP on higher education. Nearly 50-years down the line, India is still spending 4% of its GDP on education, he said adding that this should have been far greater given the current thrust and need for higher education now compared to the mid 1960s, when the need for it was not so acutely felt.
On the issue of autonomy to colleges, James observed that managements of most colleges have grossly misused it. Autonomous colleges have finance and administrative autonomy and not academic autonomy, he said adding that even the deemed university status given to colleges has been misused prompting the Supreme Court to step in. Deemed university status should be given to select colleges in a particular field, James noted.
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