Delhi: Foreign universities that get the green signal to set up their campuses in India will mostly be offering courses in new age technology and management, subjects that are the most sought after by students, University Grants Commission (UGC) chairperson M. Jagadesh Kumar told ThePrint Tuesday.
The courses offered could include subjects such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, biotechnology, financial management, and business analytics.
The Foreign Higher Education Institutions (FHEIs) will be covered under the Foreign Exchange Management (FEMA) Act which regulates cross-border movement of funds and maintenance of Foreign Currency Accounts, mode of payments, remittance, repatriation, and sale of proceeds.
In January, the higher education regulator had released the draft UGC (Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India) Regulations 2023. This laid out the norms for foreign universities to set up their campuses in India, including land lease criteria. Currently, the UGC is in the process of working out the modalities before the draft norms are finalised.
“The primary concern of these regulations is to cater to student interest. We have found that tech and management subjects are the most sought-after and provide excellent job prospects to students post-education. In order to provide world-class education to Indian students within the country, the focus of Foreign Higher Education Institutions will be on tech and management related subjects,” Kumar said.
Since the draft norms came out, the UGC has had discussions with universities from Australia and New Zealand on issues including courses to be taught and the fee structure. So far, eight universities from New Zealand, and fifteen from Australia have held discussions with the UGC, he added.
In addition to this, universities from Canada and USA have also shown interest in setting up campuses in the country, the UGC chairperson said.
According to the draft norms, FHEIs will have the freedom to decide their admission process and fee structure. Besides, they will also be allowed to repatriate funds to their parent campuses.
Some of these universities may charge a lower tuition fee from Indian students.
“Since these universities will become an attractive option for students in the global south (Asia), it is only natural that students from nearby countries would wish to come here and study. Some of the universities have hinted that they would keep the tuition fee structure relatively lower for Indian students,” the UGC chairman said.
Kumar added that UGC is open to accepting proposals from credible foreign universities that do not participate in the ranking processes.
“These are several German universities that are of high academic repute but they refrain from participating in rankings. If they approach the UGC, we will consider several parameters such as the publications, citations, patents, international collaborations, industry partnerships, alumni performance, and international student population to check the feasibility of onboarding them,” he said.
Also read: Foreign universities can set up campus in India but UGC rules out online classes
Land lease under discussion
FHEIs may either set up their campuses as a company and operate their financial operations accordingly or they may establish a branch campus and operate their campuses.
“One of the points that universities have raised,” said Kumar, “is the short duration of giving them the land on lease”.
The current draft guideline states that land will be given to FHEIs for a period of ten years, after which they will be required to renew the lease.
“The commission shall consider the recommendations of the Standing Committee and issue a notification, within 45 days, for commencing the operation of a campus in India with or without conditions. The permission shall be granted initially for a period of ten years. The FHEI shall pay the commission an annual fee (second year onwards) as decided by the commission from time to time,” states the draft guideline.
However, the UGC is looking into extending the lease beyond ten years to accommodate the request of these universities, said Kumar.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
Also read: Six impacts of UGC move to allow Harvard, Princeton, Yale to open campuses in India