The ball is finally set rolling. World-renowned universities are being invited to come and set up their campuses in India. The University Grants Commission (UGC) says it is taking baby-steps in this direction and has released a draft legislation for public feedback and fine-tuning of the concept. If all goes well, such campuses would materialize in about two years’ time — in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 released by the Modi government. Universities like Yale, Oxford and Stanford might step in on a promise that they will have autonomy — meaning, they can decide on fee structure, recruitment of students and faculty. Students from within, aspiring for education on such campuses, would themselves be many and this strength could be complemented by arrivals from other countries like Nepal or Bangladesh.
Notably, a sizable segment of Indian students who go to foreign universities– mainly from rich families as also those with educational loans or scholarships – might continue to prefer a study abroad. Fact is, many of them mean more than a study and go mostly to less-reputed universities in the developed world. Nearly seven lakh Indian students went abroad for higher education in 2022, mainly to the US, Canada, UK and other European nations. Clearly, their principal aims are the ample after-study job opportunities and chances for a permanent living there. The educated youth, especially the well-endowed ones, are not comfortable with life here for obvious reasons. They seek an escape from boredom as also better working and living conditions.
The present decision is also seen in the context of the poor performance of Indian universities in global rankings, year after year – a progressive fall in esteem to ludicrous levels. A couple of Indian universities / institutes figure in the first 200 among a ranking of over 1,500 entities worldwide. This, in a land known in ancient times as the world’s centre of learning and scholastic pursuits — as exemplified in the Nalanda and Takshashila (now in Pakistan). India ranks 101 among 133 nations as per the Global Talent Competitiveness Index-2022 – another steady fall. All these must be seen in the wider context of the gradual erosion of strengths of every system after a head-start in the planning for a modern India under a visionary leader like Jawaharlal Nehru. Politics at the center of the growth process is itself vitiated by multiple factors, which amply gets reflected in the poor quality of the nation’s governance. Bringing foreign universities here – rather than the other way round, ideally – is by itself a small step in the overall cause of empowering/revitalizing the nation.
