GoM discusses legislation for entry of foreign varsities

The revised Foreign Education Providers (FEP) Regulation Bill, to be piloted by the HRD ministry, is likely to be introduced in the current session of Parliament, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Nov 29, 2006, 24:29:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A Group of Ministers on Tuesday reportedly finalised the basic outline of the draft legislation to allow entry of foreign education providers in India. However, the officials of the HRD ministry refused to comment on the GoM meeting, held in the chambers of HRD minister Arjun Singh.

Officials, however, said the revised Foreign Education Providers (FEP) Regulation Bill, to be piloted by the HRD ministry, is likely to be introduced in the current session of Parliament.

Though the exact contents of the revised bill were not known, government sources said, an important change from the original bill is setting up of an expert committee to study the proposals from reputed foreign universities for setting up campuses in India. "If the committee deems it fit some relaxation can be offered to these institutions," a Cabinet minister told HT. But, refused to comment on the methodology for rating the institutes of repute.

As per the revised bill all foreign universities will get the status of Deemed Universities, thereby bringing them under the University Grants Commission regulations. But, the expert committee can give some relaxation to reputed foreign universities from the UGC guidelines. This is being termed as a mid-way approach as the Commerce ministry was seeking relaxation from UGC norms for foreign education providers, while the HRD was insisting on applying all norms for FEPs.

Officials said, the move could attract foreign universities in India while keeping in terms with the recommendations of the CNR Rao Committee on checking entry of fly by night operators. The committee had suggested strict regulation for FEPs in a bid to check fly by night operators and had said that most of those who had shown interest to come to India may not stay here for long.

The GoM headed by Arjun Singh have Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, Finance Minister P Chidambaram as members and Deputy Chairperson of Planning Commission Montek Singh Aluwalia and Overseas Affairs minister Vayalar Ravi as special invitees.

Kamal Nath, at the India Economic Summit, 2006 announced that the government would soon draft a new legislation to allow foreign higher education institutions to play a role in the higher education sector in India. Arguing for a more open ended approach, he said, while there is apprehension that foreign universities may lure away Indian professors there is also a likely hood that NRI professors may be attracted back to India. He also pointed out that 1.30 lakh Indian students go abroad for higher studies every year.

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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