India’s long-awaited move to open doors to foreign universities, announced this month as part of the new National Education Policy (NEP), has drawn international attention.
However, university and business leaders at the Association of Australian Education Representatives in India (AAERI) online conference, did not anticipate foreign campuses opening in the next few years. Instead, experts felt that other types of partnerships, including digital cooperation, were the way forward.
Ravneet Pawha, deputy vice-president (global engagement) at Deakin University told Times Higher Education that it was “unlikely we would build and operate our own campus in India”. “India is hard work. Setting something up is not easy,” she said during her AAERI talk. “For any foreign university, there has to be a model that is financially viable. And setting up a campus without revenue is not viable, with unclear guidelines.” Unlike in China, where the Chinese government or “parent” Chinese universities underwrite joint venture campuses with foreign partners, there is no such funding model announced yet in India.
Maheshwer Peri, founder of a major education services company, Careers360, explained that “if you want to establish a university in India, it has to be a not-for-profit”.
Lakshmi Iyer, executive director for Sannam S4, a company specialising in market entry services, said that foreign campuses might open in India, but only in the next five or 10 years.
Read on in the article… https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/partnerships-not-branch-campuses-seen-likely-india
The above resonates with what was reported in Campus Morning Mail a few weeks ago… The article stated:
https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/nothing-new-out-of-india/
Nothing new out of India (August 5, 2020)
Hopes for a new HE market will remain that
Universities have long invested resources and patience in expanding into India and for years Indian governments have talked of allowing international universities to set up shop.
It’s happening again with a new policy from the Ministry of Human Resource Development. It states, “high performing Indian universities will be encouraged to set up campuses in other countries, and similarly, select universities (e.g., those from among thetop 100 universities in the world) will be permitted to operate in India.”
There will be, “dispensation regarding regulatory, governance, and content norms on par with other autonomous institutions of India” and “credits acquired in foreign universities” will count for degrees.
Good-o but there is no word on whether the top 100 would be able, to say, take earnings out of the country.