Any and everybody cannot come to open a branch in India: Sibal

Updated on: Friday, October 14, 2011

As India seeks greater collaboration with foreign educational institutes, Minister for Human Resources Development Kapil Sibal said "any and everybody" cannot open a branch of their university on Indian soil.

In wake of sham universities like Tri Valley leaving a bitter taste among several Indian students here, Sibal said India has robust measures in place to ensure such universities do not enter the country.

Sibal said bad experiences with universities like Tri-Valley are "aberrations" and should not be used to paint the entire American education system as flawed.

"We should not brush the American system in this fashion that we have a few instances of sham universities and the kind of visas they have been giving, just as we did not paint the entire Australian system with the same brush" after Indian students were targeted in attacks there, Sibal said at an event organised here by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

The Tri Valley University was shut down early this year on grounds of alleged immigration scam.

"We have an act coming up in Parliament called the Education Malpractices Act. This is one of the malpractice which is made a criminal offence and if something like this (Tri valley sham) were to happen in India, people behind the university will go to jail."

He said while India wants greater collaboration with US universities, it will not mean that "we will allow the sham universities to come to India," adding that there is a robust process of looking at applications of universities.

"We really would not worry about it. All those caveats are part of the legislation," Sibal said adding that a few universities duping students are aberrations that take place in any system.

"No education system is perfect. There will be challenges along the road."

Speaking on the occasion, Indian Ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao said there are genuine difficulties that students in these sham universities have faced and that India is working with the US government to ensure "these difficulties are alleviated."

She added that by no means should these unpleasant experiences with some universities be used as a "marker" to define the future and scope of India-US education partnership and potential.

Sibal said the Indian legislation for foreign universities to set up base in the country is very strong and "any and everybody" cannot come to India to open a branch.

He said the foreign university has to be an accredited institution and should have been in the business for 20 years "before it even thinks of coming to India."

The Minister said India will ensure through its accreditation process that it is a quality institution.

Further, sham universities would not be able to meet the requirement of spending 10 million dollars for setting up a campus in India, he said.

Any and everybody cannot come to open a branch in India: Sibal

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