The Indian gold rush

Updated on: Monday, July 19, 2010

The move by the Indian Cabinet in March to approve the Foreign Educational Providers Bill heralds a fundamental change to how education is likely to be offered to many Indian students for decades to come. While we are unlikely to see a sprint of international universities rushing to set up campuses in India, the potential impact of new universities opening throughout India can only be positive for the country as a whole. A range of universities in Australia, the US, Canada and the UK have already made public their intentions of setting up shop in India, but the timetable for the founding of such ventures is likely to be years from when the Bill is actually approved by the Indian Parliament.

But what will such a development mean for the estimated 250,000 Indian students currently studying abroad for their Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D. degrees? Neil Kemp, former Head of Education at The British Council and a one-time resident of Kolkata, believes that Indian students will continue to look favourably upon education offered away from India, “There is still a huge amount of prestige attached to studying abroad and the desire to have an ‘international experience’ will always remain important to Indian students. What we may see change is students becoming more focused on where they have their period of international study — for example, if a student can receive an internationally recognised and accredited degree from India with reduced living and other costs, then they may well be in a more financially and academically viable position to study away from India for their Masters or Ph.D. programme.”

Up-to-date education
With such a development already well established in countries like China, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, the experience has both positive and negative elements for prospective students. Whilst gaining an international qualification from an Indian-based foreign university will match the standards of both the top Indian and other universities, the genuinely international aspects of studying abroad and living in another culture will be lost, and for many students, this is the main motivation for considering an overseas degree. For others, however, the prospect of having access to a different style of education, with up-to-date study methods and materials, potentially at a reduced cost, will outweigh any negatives of the loss of studying abroad.

Need of a desi campus
And what does the future hold for those international universities that are not considering an Indian campus at the moment? Andy Nicol, until recently the Director of Coventry University’s International Office believes that the future is still very bright for those universities who are not prepared to establish campuses in India, “the numbers of Indian students willing to invest significant amounts of their own or their family’s money in an international education are unlikely to diminish and there will always be those students focused on gaining an international degree outside of India for the experience it gives them. That said, international branch campuses established in India are likely to encourage different and increased numbers of students considering an international education, without the additional costs of living abroad.”

The opportunity to learn from an international curriculum without the need to leave home maybe the most significant change in Indian education for a century and will fuel an even greater interest in university-level education amongst Indian students. The only thing that rema-ins to be seen is when the gold rush will begin.

The Indian gold rush

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