Foreign universities set to storm fortress India
EducationWorld March 05 | EducationWorld
Rumours are rife that under cover of the World Trade Organisation accords and the General Agreement on Trade in Services, cash-strapped western universities and educationists steeped in the art of infotech empowered pedagogies are massing to invade India, widely perceived as the world’s largest market for higher education. Dilip Thakore investigates A shiver of apprehension is snaking its way through the somnolent groves of Indian academia, particularly through the nation’s 15,600 colleges and 311 universities which inject over two million far-from-industry-ready graduates annually into the bloodstream of the economy. Rumours are rife that under cover of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) accords and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) as cash-strapped foreign universities set to storm fortress India, widely perceived as the world’s largest market for higher education. This growing apprehension within Indian academia is being fuelled by the large number of recce delegations led by top-level foreign academics who have been making whirlwind tours of Indian metros in recent times. For instance during the past two months, apex level academics from Yale, Stanford, and Middlesex (UK) universities and CIE (the Council for International Examinations, UK) — all featured in EducationWorld — visited India to study the topography and scout for students, tie-ups and collaborations. With India’s existing higher education system able to absorb only 6 percent of youth aged 18-24, the demand for high quality, internationally benchmarked education — especially English medium instruction — is exploding, particularly within the nation’s fast-expanding 150-200 million middle class. The government of India’s legal position under the WTO accords to which it is a signatory and GATS which is a subsidiary protocol under WTO, is a grey area. Several schools of opinion have differing interpretations of India’s obligations under GATS which governs reciprocal trade in 12 services including education. Some experts believe that under GATS, India is obliged to allow foreign education service providers free access into this country failing which countries denied access (e.g the US) can stymie Indian service exports (e.g software services) until the dispute is resolved by the WTO appellate tribunal. A second school of opinion believes that India is entitled to impose stiff conditions and requirements which would discourage foreign education institutions from offering their services in this country. And the dominant view is that under the WTO accords to which GATS is subsidiary, India is obliged to negotiate reasonable terms and conditions under which offshore education institutions can enter the domestic education marketplace. Dr. A. Jayagovind, director of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore widely regarded as the country’s premier institute of legal education, believes that the public confusion over this issue which neither the Union human resource development ministry nor the University Grants Commission (UGC) have cleared up is understandable. “The World Trade Organisation which is founded on the premise that incremental international trade is beneficial to all people globally, administers 17 agreements including GATS. Education is one of the 12 services in which international trade is encouraged by WTO in the broader interest of people everywhere.…