How our students can contribute to Indian economy instead of US
The 2015 Open Doors Report, released this week, has pegged the number of Indian students studying in the US at 1,32,888, a 30 per cent rise from the previous year. The report states that these students contribute $3.6 billion to the US economy. At the current exchange rate, it amounts to nearly Rs 24,000 crore. To get a perspective on the amount, India's higher education budget is about Rs 13,000 crore.
What does it tell us about the Indian education system?
Firstly, it reiterates the fact that there is a serious shortage of higher education institutions which drives hordes of students abroad. There is a crunch on the supply side which fails to meet the demands, both in numbers and quality, of the fast growing youth population. India is slated to be the youngest nation by 2030 and its demand for education will only increase, and that too, exponentially. Yet the 750-odd universities, a lot of them in a feeble state, clearly are not positioned to cater to those demands.
Secondly, the report points out that foreign universities are an attraction for Indian students, and for obvious reasons. The leverage one receives with a foreign degree, and indeed the whole education experience catapult him/her to positions and ranks much higher than his/her Indian-educated counterparts. It is not the mere degree but the "education experience" one receives in universities in the US and UK - the two top destinations for Indian students - enhances the value of a graduate.
More than 2,00,000 Indian students who go abroad spend nearly Rs 45,000 crore. Clearly, India is losing that massive revenue, or at least a chunk of it. In being able to retain a section of its students who go abroad, and attract foreign students, India would boost both its regular and knowledge economy.
What needs to be done about it?
A slew of reforms and measures are needed to make India an education hub in Asia, as it aspires to be. Indian higher education suffers from over-centralisation and over-bureaucratisation.
Capacity building, in terms of infrastructure and personnel, has been the focus of the ministry of human resource and development (MHRD) since quite sometime, yet the progress on it has been too slow to be visible. That Indian universities need a revamp, not merely to excel in an international ranking system, but in terms of autonomy, teacher training, research environment, curriculum design and a whole gamut of affairs is echoed by all stakeholders. A lot has already been suggested and the domestic scenario needs another few articles to talk about.
As far as bringing foreign universities to Indian shores, the passage of Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill is an important step. The Bill has been mired in several controversies since it was first tabled in 2010 but with Prime Minister Narendra Modi assigning the NITI Aayog to form a policy regarding it, the Bill hopefully, sees some necessary amendments and passage at the earliest.
The foreign universities are expected to bring with them modern infrastructure, an advanced curriculum, a good quality faculty and importantly, a culture that promotes higher education. There are apprehensions galore regarding the likelihood of exorbitant fees, poaching of faculty from already short-staffed institutions, the menace of fly-by-night operators, and so on.
The role of the regulatory body, or as it often happens in India, regulatory bodies, is important. Without granting academic and administrative autonomy, measures like prividing a level playing field, well-delineated guidelines, simple project clearance rules, and foreign universities setting shop in India, will not be fruitful endeavours. With a fair and strong regulator, which has closed ended mandates, apprehensions of naysayers can be allayed.
Both the quantity and quality of education are important for the Indian youth. While the focus should be to set the house of Indian higher education in order, and the MHRD is to be credited for several new measures that it has initiated, giving a boost to higher education by allowing foreign universities is much warranted. While these universities are not a panacea to all the problems higher education in India faces, they can perhaps address a few of them. The US in 2014 earned $30 billion from international students and Indian students contributed more than ten per cent of it. This can't be lost sight of.