E Kumar Sharma
On September 10, the very day the government announced its decision to allow foreign universities to operate independently in India - set up their own campuses and offer degrees without roping in any local partner - Schulich School of Business of York University, Toronto, launched its campus in India.
It had not been planned that way. Schulich wanted its own university, but unaware the change was coming, launched in India under a twinning programme with infrastructure giant GMR
as its local partner. Their first batch of 40 students began the programme out of a temporary campus in Hyderabad.
The twinning programme means the degree would be offered by Schulich - the students would spend the first year in Hyderabad and the second year in Toronto.
"If all that was involved in allowing foreign universities to operate out of India was a simple government order (GO), why did the government waste three years talking about the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill," says V. Raghunathan, CEO, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation. Raghunathan was named among the world's top 50 management thinkers by the Thinkers Magazine for 2013.
Will India now see Harvard, Stanford, Oxford and Cornell opening campuses in India?
While a few like Harvard and Duke are already present in India, the focus is largely on India-based research or to offer their executive education programmes.
The government order sets a caveat - foreign universities will have to operate as 'Section 25' companies or a not-for-profit entities, and will not be allowed to repatriate their earnings. Also, they need to deposit Rs 25 crore with the HRD ministry which they could forfeit in case of any violation of rules.
This could be a dampener. Many argue the incentive for foreign universities to set up establishments in India would have to be more than just the love of educating Indians.
The huge positive is that government is insisting that the schools coming in should be among the top schools. There may still be a good chance of leading schools,
especially B-schools wishing to have a presence in India, with the hope that perhaps the policy will change in the long run.
In the short- to medium-term, the schools may want to use their brands to attract more people to their executive education programmes or they could start charging a lot more for the global component of their courses offered in India.
Not everyone agrees of course. "While it is good that the country is welcoming high quality players, with these hurdles they may still opt to stay away, at least for the moment," says Pramath Sinha, the founding dean of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
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