Education sector to open up

Foreign universities will be allowed to have campuses in India

He also assured that the foreign universities, which would be allowed to open their campuses in the country, could design their own courses and decide the fee structure. They  would not be forced upon to implement reservation for SC/ST/OBC.
“The year 2010 will be the year of deliverance for the education sector. All laws for opening up this sector will be in place by this year,” he told a Leadership Summit organised by the US-based Boston University.

Inviting well known foreign universities like Boston to open their campuses in India, the minister said there should not be any misconception about  control of the government on these institutions as the private unaided institutions in India were not subjected to any control from the ministry.

He also said that the Centre would set up an Educational Financial Corporation to give easy loans to poor students willing to pursue professional education so that no one would have to give up studies due to penury. He, however, said that at the entry point the foreign institutes would be screened by a group of experts.
“We cannot allow any one and every one to come here and run institutes by fly-by-night education service providers. But once they are allowed entry, they would design their courses, semester system, fee structure and everything relating to their institution,” Sibal said.

He also advised the foreign universities to look for suitable partners including Indian entrepreneurs to start joint ventures for setting up educational institutions. However, he ruled out giving entrepreneurs any fiscal incentives like tax exemption for setting up universities here. Expressing his enthusiasm at the immense scope of expansion in India, Boston University President Dr Robert Brown said the university would explore the options of coming to this country just like they have set up a campus in Dubai.
However, he also pointed out the twin challenges of lack of good faculty and low tuition fees in India. “In Boston we get $one billion as endowment. But tuition fees support 50 per cent of the total revenue. I do not think this kind of high revenue earnings would be possible in India,” he said.
DH News Service