In a consultation paper titled, Higher Education in India and GATS, the ministry has proposed a separate regulatory framework for private players ? both domestic and foreign.
The Union commerce ministry wants to change the ground rules in the higher education sector through a liberal “playing field” for the private sector, including foreign education providers (FEPs).
HT Image
In a consultation paper titled, Higher Education in India and GATS, the ministry has proposed a separate regulatory framework for private players — both domestic and foreign.
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
Suggestions by the Human Resource Development ministry, the Planning Commission and higher educational institutions will help devise the policy on FEPs for onward transmission to WTO-GATS by the end of this year. India had opened its education sector in 2001, when 100 per cent FDI was allowed. However, tough entry regulations prevented top FEPs from opening campuses in India. By 2006, only 150 FEPs entered into joint ventures with Indian institutions and could attract just 8,000 students even as the number of Indians seeking education in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand crossed 1.10 lakh annually.
To remove the existing hurdles, the paper has solicited suggestions from the stakeholders on its 16-point charter. It wants to know whether foreign education providers should be allowed or not. If yes, in what manner — phased or single shot? What should be the areas for FEPs’ entry and what regulatory role should the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) play? And whether flexibility be accorded in setting fee structures, admissions and hiring of teachers to FEPs? The ministry also wants to know the problems Indian institutions are facing in opening campuses abroad.
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
{{^usCountry}}
Suggesting a paradigm shift from fully government-funded or totally unaided higher education institutions, the paper calls for a combination of public and private participation. The ministry’s logic for encouraging the private sector is that “public spending on higher education should be discouraged since private benefits outweigh social benefits. Subsidising higher education benefits the rich more than the poor.”
{{/usCountry}}
{{#usCountry}}
Suggesting a paradigm shift from fully government-funded or totally unaided higher education institutions, the paper calls for a combination of public and private participation. The ministry’s logic for encouraging the private sector is that “public spending on higher education should be discouraged since private benefits outweigh social benefits. Subsidising higher education benefits the rich more than the poor.”
{{/usCountry}}
To make the new model financially viable the ministry has suggested a cost recovery regime, at the core of which is a suitable tuition fee structure. “This will reduce the financial constraints faced by higher education institutions,” the ministry said. The paper also advises aided institutes to generate their own resources so that students can avail of quality higher education with easy bank loans on flexible terms.
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.
