The government has finally approved the Bill 2010 (“Bill”) of the Regulation of Entry and Operation of Foreign Educational Institutions (Maintenance of Quality and Prevention of Marketing). The bill seeks to regulate the entry, operation and restriction of foreign universities in India. However, shortly after the Union Cabinet passed the long-pending bill allowing foreign education providers to establish campuses in India and offer degrees independently, most of the Indian opposition parties they opposed the bill, calling it “trade-driven” and creating inequity. As long as opposition concerns persist over issues such as degree equivalency / parity, fee structures, and fairness in terms of access to all students, passage of the bill in Parliament appears difficult.

Although the current FDI policy is 100% foreign investment in the education sector, including higher education, foreign universities are currently not able to directly offer degree courses in India. It is estimated that about 150 foreign institutes offer courses with Indian universities under a twinning agreement, that is, a part of the course in India and remain abroad, but most of them do not have all the required accreditation from regulatory bodies. . Existing arrangements are regulated by the All India Council for Technical Education Regulations for Entry and Operation of Foreign Universities in India providing Technical Education, 2005 (“Foreign Universities Regulations”), which currently only applies to technical and management institutes.

Some of the reported provisions that are part of this bill approved by the Union Cabinet include:
• Different levels of registration process to register with the University Scholarship Commission (“UGC”) or any similar regulatory body. Subject to the necessary approvals by the UGC, a foreign university could be registered as a ‘considered university’ under the relevant provisions of the University Scholarships Commission Act of 1956.
• A corpus fund of INR 50 crore (US $ 10 million appox) is required to be deposited by the intended foreign university;
• Such foreign universities would be established as “not-for-profit” companies pursuant to Section 25 of the Companies Act and, therefore, cannot recover the profits. Similar provisions are applicable to Indian private universities and universities regarded as lucrative activities in education sector are frowned upon by regulators;
• However, foreign universities can provide consulting services, faculty development and other similar activities, and the profits generated by these projects can be repatriated. Indian private universities are adopting similar structures;
• a time-bound process for granting approval to foreign educational institutions to establish campuses;
• scrutinizing proposals from aspiring institutions based on their previous experience, faculty strength, reputation, and so on.
• Quota laws that provide reserve for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes may not apply to foreign universities establishing campuses in India.

It is indicated that several foreign institutes are already interested in establishing campuses in India and these institutes are viewing the recent development with great interest. Therefore, the legislation of the bill would open a huge market for international educational institutions and collaborations with Indian universities.

The bill, once finalized and enacted, is expected to attract huge foreign investment in India’s education sector and support the Government of India in its commitment to increase public and private sector participation in the education sector. education and raise the college attendance rate to 30% by 2020 compared to today, 12 percent of all school dropouts enter college. It is also claimed that this will place India as a “preferred destination for education” on the world map of knowledge, as it will not only reduce the number of Indian students pursuing higher education (estimated at 1.6 lakh of Indian students by year). year with an outflow of around 7.5 billion foreign currency per year), but it would also attract foreign students from Southeastern countries.

In addition to this, it is also expected to create new business opportunities for Indian educational actors and new and better job opportunities for teachers, administrative and technical staff.

While the bill is likely to benefit Indian students by increasing the options currently available to them and assisting in the overall development of the education system in India, especially the higher education system, several unanswered questions remain, such as lack of regulatory clarity and the level of government inference, lack of an independent regulator (non-governmental body), compliance with mandatory campus infrastructure and development requirements, flexibility in setting fees, taxes, closing of universities, etc.

In the absence of the actual bill being publicly available (it will be available once it is presented in Parliament), the above views are based on the earlier version of the bill publicly available and recent public discussions on the bill .

Seema jhingan
[email protected]