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MUMBAIA delegation of U.S. education officials visiting India alongside President Barack Obama is trying to push India to speed up its acceptance of foreign universities, an Indian government initiative that has been promised but appears to be stalled.
The group of about a dozen U.S. officials, including representatives from Duke University, Rutgers University and Arizona State University, will make its case Tuesday to senior officials from India's Human Resource Development ministry, which covers higher education.
The ruling Indian National Congress party introduced a bill in March that would allow foreign universities to set up stand-alone undergraduate and graduate-degree programs here. Foreign institutions are now allowed to set up only programs in India that are part of degree programs based elsewhere.
The foreign universities bill is being reviewed by a parliamentary committee. Supporters hope the legislation will be approved in the winter session, which begins this month.
The foreign delegation is hoping a meeting on Tuesday with Vibha Das, India's secretary of higher education, will yield some clues about the best approach to take in expanding their higher education opportunities in India, participants say.
India, with more than half of its 1.1 billion people under the age of 30, represents a vast new market for U.S. universities. Duke University, for example, aims to set up a campus in India, starting with a business degree program. To do so requires passage of the foreign universities bill, said Jaivir Singh, an adviser to Duke in Delhi who is part of the delegation.
"Nothing significant from the perspective of a campus can happen until that bill passes," said Mr. Singh.
Kapil Sibal, minister of human resource development, has said he wants to encourage foreign universities to establish undergraduate and graduate degree programs in India as part of a broader plan to substantially increase the quality and quantity of higher education programs in India. The country can't meet the demand of its growing economy for better educated workers unless its higher education system is substantially expanded and improved, supporters of the bill have said.
Mr. Sibal has said he wants to increase the number of high school graduates who enroll in college to 30% by 2020, from 12% currently. To do so, India needs to build hundreds more colleges and universities, he has said.
India's economy is expected to grow at about 8.5% this year, aided by the loosening in the 1990s of many of the socialist-style regulations of industry. But the government has been slow to lift similarly stringent regulations on education that legislate aspects such as tuition fees, teacher salaries and curriculum. As a result, there is a shortage of qualified workers in the expanding economy, and the shortfall is only expected to worsen.
Among the many problems that plague Indian higher education is the difficulty recruiting faculty because salaries are so low compared to the private sector.
American universities have made clear to Mr. Sibal that they can't operate in India under such heavy regulations. And Mr. Sibal has repeatedly said he hopes not only to allow foreign universities to operate in India without the burden of such regulations but to liberate the entire higher education system from these outdated rules.
Whether he will be able to do so remains in question, in part because many Indians fear tuition fees, unregulated, would soar out of the reach of the average Indian, in the absence of substantial student loan programs.
Mr. Sibal has said he intends to set up student loan programs and vocational education programs, both of which are virtually nonexistent in India.
U.S. Officials to Press India on Education - WSJ.com
The group of about a dozen U.S. officials, including representatives from Duke University, Rutgers University and Arizona State University, will make its case Tuesday to senior officials from India's Human Resource Development ministry, which covers higher education.
The ruling Indian National Congress party introduced a bill in March that would allow foreign universities to set up stand-alone undergraduate and graduate-degree programs here. Foreign institutions are now allowed to set up only programs in India that are part of degree programs based elsewhere.
The foreign universities bill is being reviewed by a parliamentary committee. Supporters hope the legislation will be approved in the winter session, which begins this month.
The foreign delegation is hoping a meeting on Tuesday with Vibha Das, India's secretary of higher education, will yield some clues about the best approach to take in expanding their higher education opportunities in India, participants say.
India, with more than half of its 1.1 billion people under the age of 30, represents a vast new market for U.S. universities. Duke University, for example, aims to set up a campus in India, starting with a business degree program. To do so requires passage of the foreign universities bill, said Jaivir Singh, an adviser to Duke in Delhi who is part of the delegation.
"Nothing significant from the perspective of a campus can happen until that bill passes," said Mr. Singh.
Kapil Sibal, minister of human resource development, has said he wants to encourage foreign universities to establish undergraduate and graduate degree programs in India as part of a broader plan to substantially increase the quality and quantity of higher education programs in India. The country can't meet the demand of its growing economy for better educated workers unless its higher education system is substantially expanded and improved, supporters of the bill have said.
Mr. Sibal has said he wants to increase the number of high school graduates who enroll in college to 30% by 2020, from 12% currently. To do so, India needs to build hundreds more colleges and universities, he has said.
India's economy is expected to grow at about 8.5% this year, aided by the loosening in the 1990s of many of the socialist-style regulations of industry. But the government has been slow to lift similarly stringent regulations on education that legislate aspects such as tuition fees, teacher salaries and curriculum. As a result, there is a shortage of qualified workers in the expanding economy, and the shortfall is only expected to worsen.
Among the many problems that plague Indian higher education is the difficulty recruiting faculty because salaries are so low compared to the private sector.
American universities have made clear to Mr. Sibal that they can't operate in India under such heavy regulations. And Mr. Sibal has repeatedly said he hopes not only to allow foreign universities to operate in India without the burden of such regulations but to liberate the entire higher education system from these outdated rules.
Whether he will be able to do so remains in question, in part because many Indians fear tuition fees, unregulated, would soar out of the reach of the average Indian, in the absence of substantial student loan programs.
Mr. Sibal has said he intends to set up student loan programs and vocational education programs, both of which are virtually nonexistent in India.
U.S. Officials to Press India on Education - WSJ.com
