Autar Nehru (Delhi) With the university grants Commission (UGC) — the apex-level body that regulates higher education countrywide — releasing its draft UGC (Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India) Regulations, 2023 on January 5, India moved closer to permitting foreign higher education institutions (FHEIs) to establish campuses on Indian soil. Although finalisation of the regulations is pending, to all intent and purposes this historic liberalisation of Indian academia — a tightly closed shop until dawn of the new millennium — is done and dusted. Ironically, the ruling BJP government at the Centre, and particularly its ideological mentor organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had all along vociferously opposed the entry of FHEIs into India since the proposal was initiated in the 1990s. First mooted shortly after the historic Union Budget of 1991 which dismantled Soviet-inspired licence-permit-quota raj in Indian industry, this initiative has had a chequered history. The first Bill to this effect was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 1995 by the Narasimha Rao-led Congress government in its last year in office, and it lapsed when the government’s term ended. In 2007, a Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry, Operation, Maintenance of Quality and Prevention of Commercialisation) Bill, 2007 was approved by the Union cabinet of the Congress-led UPA government which swept to power at the Centre in General Election 2004. However, the Bill was strongly opposed by the CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) whose 66 MPs were supporting the UPA coalition of that time and it wasn’t tabled in Parliament. Another Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill, 2010 was presented to Parliament in 2010, but was vehemently opposed by the BJP which made common cause with left-wing communists, and was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee. Finally the Bill was introduced on January 13, 2013 by then Union HRD (education) minister Kapil Sibal, but prolonged disruption of Parliament by the opposition (especially BJP) killed it until the term of the Lok Sabha ended. Therefore this time round, instead of enacting legislation which could be torpedoed in Parliament, the BJP government has invoked s.12 and s.26 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, which confers wide powers on the commission to “advance the cause of higher education in India”, and maintain “minimum standards of instruction for the grant of any degree by any university”. According to BJP insiders in Delhi, the major factor which has prompted the BJP about-turn is that with reputed Western universities having established campuses in China, UAE, Singapore, Malaysia, and Qatar, these countries have emerged as international education hubs attracting students from several countries, including India. On the other hand, the inflow of foreign students into India has remained unimpressive at under 75,000 for the past two decades. Moreover, with the latest AISHE (All India Survey on Higher Education) Report indicating that against the target of 50 percent youth in the 18-24 age group in higher education by 2035, the current GER (gross enrolment ratio)…
