China model for higher education, says Pranab

In a letter to deputy chairperson of Planning Commission, Mukerjee says there are lessons to be learnt from the reforms in higher education in China, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Sep 12, 2007, 20:56:53 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A China model of higher education with higher fee structure for India is what External Affairs minister Pranab Mukerjee has suggested.

Mukerjee, in a letter to Deputy chairperson of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said, “there are lessons to be learnt from the reforms in higher education in China. We should follow their example and draw upon reform package to covert at least 10 universities into world-class institutions. The concept of trying up these universities with partner institutions in the hinterland is also interesting and worth a try”. His letter is likely to be discussed at the full Planning Commission meeting on Thursday.

Making a strong case for partnership with foreign universities, the external affairs minister, said, “Partnerships with universities abroad, tried out by China, indeed deserves our attention”. However, the Left parties have opposed any entry of foreign education providers into India, thereby stalling the introduction of the Foreign Education Providers entry Bill in the recently concluded Parliament session, over two months after approved by the Cabinet.

But, Mukerjee wants a re-look at the bill to allow dual degrees and branch campuses of foreign universities in India. “I think the time has come to experiment with various forms of cooperation with foreign universities including branch campuses and running training programmes leading to dual degrees,” he said, in the letter.

Another move, which may upset his friends in Left parties, is the suggestion to raise the fees for higher education. “We should move away from under charging of fees especially when a large number of students in the higher education can afford to pay the fees,” he said. For the increased resources, the government can have liberal scholarship or subsidised loan scheme, he added.

The minister also advocates more private participation in higher education as suggested by Planning Commission but opposed by the HRD ministry. He also recommends reforms in apex institutions like UGC, AICTE and MCI to bring in standards and norms for quality higher education.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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