Only Top 500 Foreign Universities May Enter India – UGC

In an attempt to rein in fly-by-night operators who have set up shops in India, the Universities Grants Commission (UGC) has made its approval mandatory for all collaborations between foreign and Indian educational institutions. The new regulations approved by the UGC on Saturday give existing institutions six months to get approval.

The UGC has also laid down dual criteria to ensure that quality academic institutions are allowed to run joint degree or twinning courses. Only those foreign institutions will be allowed to collaborate who figure in the top 500 of the Times Higher Education World University Ranking or the Shanghai Jiaotong ranking.

The Indian varsities should have received the highest accreditation grade from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) to be eligible for a tie-up with a foreign institution.

“We would like only quality academic institutions to establish programmes here to protect students’ interests. We will issue a public notice and also put up a list on our website detailing approved institutions so that students are not duped,” Prof Ved Prakash, UGC acting chairman, said.

The degrees will be awarded by the Indian universities for their acceptability in India. Institutes failing to abide by the guidelines would be penalized. The UGC is empowered to stop grants in case of public institutions while it can recommend to the Centre withdrawal of recognition in case of deemed universities.

The guidelines come at a time when the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations Bill) 2010 has been pending before Parliament for the past two years. There has been growing concern in recent years that fake foreign varsities were duping students. Now, over 600 foreign education institutions operate in the country.

The UGC put its plan to allow foreign universities to set up campus on hold after a large number of members felt that there was need for greater deliberations. “It was felt that there was need for more detailed deliberations with statutory councils from different areas of study, including technical, medical, law and architecture,” said Prakash.

A UGC member said that several members questioned the need to allow foreign varsities to function as “deemed universities”. Considering the overwhelming view, the decision was deferred.

Factfile

• Foreign education institutions have increased from 144 (2000) to 631 (2010)
• The maximum number were from the UK (158), followed by Canada (80) and the US (44)
• Of the 60 foreign education providers, who have programme collaboration with local institutions, only 25 local institutions were affiliated to Indian universities or approved by regulatory bodies
• Only 32 of the 49 foreign institutions operating under twinning arrangements have approval or affiliation