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Rahul, a Delhiite, has performed exceedingly well in his senior secondary examination and is excited to join a prestigious undergraduate programme at an Ivy league university. He and his parents are least bothered about the weakening of the rupee against the dollar and its negative impact on the cost of overseas education. This is not due to his affluent background but because he will be pursuing the programme at the Gurgaon campus of the foreign university. This dream of thousands, may be millions, of Indian students aspiring for world-class foreign education at rupee cost may soon become reality if the government has its way.
It is common knowledge that the MHRD had formulated the Foreign Education Providers Bill in 2010 to permit foreign universities to set up campuses in India. The Bill, however, has been awaiting Parliamentary nod for a long time. Given the existing situation, we now understand that the government is in the process of finalising regulations that seek to achieve the objectives defined under the aforesaid Bill. This development has been confirmed by the education minister while replying to a question in Parliament. The Bill, in its current form, had placed certain conditions, such as a minimum corpus of R500 million and restriction on ploughing back of profits on foreign universities desirous of setting up a campus in India.
In the past few years, some of these onerous conditions have been a subject of intense debate in the industry. As per some industry experts, such conditions will put off some of the most prestigious global universities to invest in the Indian market. We will have to wait and watch as to how many of these conditions are prescribed under the proposed regulations.
These regulations have become all the more important for an Indian student eyeing overseas degrees given the recent fall in the value of the rupee. To quote statistics, the rupee has depreciated by about 9% in the last month itself with analysts predicting new lows in the near future.
Further, the monthly average value of rupee versus dollar in the last one year indicates a fall of nearly 13% in value.
The accompanying table clearly indicates that the cost of pursuing an MBA from Stanford University has gone up by around 17% due to the weakening rupee. Please note that the additional burden on the student is even more significant as social costs of living have not been included in this calculation.
In today's tough economic situation, this is bound to impact the plans of the aspiring middle class seeking overseas education for their wards. The proposed regulations can thus provide a breather by providing access to quality higher education at an affordable cost and transform the entire landscape of higher education system in the country. The foreign universities are expected to introduce global best practices in pedagogy, curricula, research and training. In order to meet the new benchmark, the domestic education players would be forced to improve the quality of their service offerings also. In addition, the domestic campuses of foreign universities would also help the government in keeping a check on brain-drain as most of the academically brilliant students, who currently pursue education overseas, generally tend to accept foreign job offers.
In the past, institutions such as Duke University,Virginia Tech, University of Southern California and many more have openly expressed their interest in setting up a campus in India. Such institutions are expected to revive their India plans on notification of the proposed regulations. With over 50% of the populations below 25 years, annual enrolment of over 21 million students in higher education and GER of around 18% the country offers an attractive proposition for such institutions. We believe this is certainly a step in the right direction and is expected to reap rich benefits in the long run. We would ideally like a law to be passed and enacted that will supersede the proposed regulations in order to lend more comfort to the foreign institutions planning to invest in the Indian market.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/foreign-universities-in-india-dollar-education-in-rupees/1166346/0
It is common knowledge that the MHRD had formulated the Foreign Education Providers Bill in 2010 to permit foreign universities to set up campuses in India. The Bill, however, has been awaiting Parliamentary nod for a long time. Given the existing situation, we now understand that the government is in the process of finalising regulations that seek to achieve the objectives defined under the aforesaid Bill. This development has been confirmed by the education minister while replying to a question in Parliament. The Bill, in its current form, had placed certain conditions, such as a minimum corpus of R500 million and restriction on ploughing back of profits on foreign universities desirous of setting up a campus in India.
In the past few years, some of these onerous conditions have been a subject of intense debate in the industry. As per some industry experts, such conditions will put off some of the most prestigious global universities to invest in the Indian market. We will have to wait and watch as to how many of these conditions are prescribed under the proposed regulations.
These regulations have become all the more important for an Indian student eyeing overseas degrees given the recent fall in the value of the rupee. To quote statistics, the rupee has depreciated by about 9% in the last month itself with analysts predicting new lows in the near future.
Further, the monthly average value of rupee versus dollar in the last one year indicates a fall of nearly 13% in value.
The accompanying table clearly indicates that the cost of pursuing an MBA from Stanford University has gone up by around 17% due to the weakening rupee. Please note that the additional burden on the student is even more significant as social costs of living have not been included in this calculation.
In today's tough economic situation, this is bound to impact the plans of the aspiring middle class seeking overseas education for their wards. The proposed regulations can thus provide a breather by providing access to quality higher education at an affordable cost and transform the entire landscape of higher education system in the country. The foreign universities are expected to introduce global best practices in pedagogy, curricula, research and training. In order to meet the new benchmark, the domestic education players would be forced to improve the quality of their service offerings also. In addition, the domestic campuses of foreign universities would also help the government in keeping a check on brain-drain as most of the academically brilliant students, who currently pursue education overseas, generally tend to accept foreign job offers.
In the past, institutions such as Duke University,Virginia Tech, University of Southern California and many more have openly expressed their interest in setting up a campus in India. Such institutions are expected to revive their India plans on notification of the proposed regulations. With over 50% of the populations below 25 years, annual enrolment of over 21 million students in higher education and GER of around 18% the country offers an attractive proposition for such institutions. We believe this is certainly a step in the right direction and is expected to reap rich benefits in the long run. We would ideally like a law to be passed and enacted that will supersede the proposed regulations in order to lend more comfort to the foreign institutions planning to invest in the Indian market.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/foreign-universities-in-india-dollar-education-in-rupees/1166346/0
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