Expert sees opportunities in Global South for ‘soft power’.
For the first time, most significant Indian universities have been allowed to set up international branch campuses.
According to the University Grants Commission, the privilege has been granted to the 20 universities participating in the “institutes of eminence” brilliance initiative.
In a historically closed system, the approach of “institutes of eminence” opens up an additional pathway. The National Education Policy, launched with pleasure ground the previous summer, allowed international universities to open campuses in India.
As per new terms published this month, in five years an institute of eminence (IoE) will be permitted to open a maximum of three foreign branch campuses. although IoEs normally operate with an elevated autonomy than other Indian universities, their branch campuses will still require a 10-year of vital arrangement and endorsement from up to three government ministries.
Institutes of eminence would first be able to open interval branches in different nations since a permanent campus is finished within five years. The foreign endeavors should keep to the house establishment’s admissions procedures, educational plans, and exam frameworks. The objective is to have a minimum of one-third of students in the international branches as postgraduates or researchers.
The institutes of eminence scheme, established in 2018, includes ten public and ten private institutions such as the University of Delhi, O.P. Jindal Global University, and several Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). Public institutions under the scheme will be given state subsidizing for the extension.
Eldho Mathews, the deputy adviser in the department for international cooperation at Delhi’s National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, told Times Higher Education that permitting leading universities grow abroad was a potential “soft power strategy” by opening up campuses in the Global South”.
He saw the most potential from IITs, famous for their engineering programs, and “private organizations, predominantly to address the issues of expatriate populations in different parts of the world”.
He added, “compared to other institutions, the majority of IoEs are relatively more satisfactory because of their better internationalization strategies.”
In the January issue of Economic and Political Weekly, Mr. Mathews writes that “leveraging international influence through higher education was an opportunity for disruption in India”, exceptionally in the post-covid times.
Not many Indian institutions have overseas operations at present times. In 2017, Some Indian administration schools were permitted. Whereas a couple of specialized universities, for instance, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, and tuition-based schools like the Manipal Academy of Higher Education have operations in Dubai.
Nevertheless, there have not so far been any significant Indian university abroad grounds. Quite a while back, the grants commission shut down seven Middle Eastern operational branches of Mahatma Gandhi University for violating regulations.
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