1. Forbes India
Fixing Indian Higher Ed
Neelima Mahajan-Bansal & Shishir Prasad, 04.13.10, 6:00 PM ET
There is an interesting anecdote about how Jagran Integrated Business School changed its name to Leeds Metropolitan
University. Abhishek Mohan Gupta, director (marketing and strategic development) of Jagran Social Welfare Society,
which runs Jagran Integrated, wanted to get his alma mater Leeds Met into the country. For five years he waded through
the maze of government approvals. No luck. Leeds remained out. And Gupta remained stuck.
He then used his last trick. He told the government that he wanted to change Jagran Integrated's affiliation from
Barkatullah University to Leeds Met. Nobody had made a request like that before. The absence of precedent befuddled
the mandarins who governed higher education, and they ended up giving it a go ahead. Overnight the soul of Leeds Met
entered the body of Jagran Integrated. Last year 70 students were studying there in four programs. This year Gupta is
ramping it up to 13 programs. In a few years, Gupta wants to enroll 1,000 students.
That's not all; Gupta thinks he can use the 36-acre campus even more efficiently. He plans to add two more universities,
make student accommodation and food court common to all three and dub the whole thing an "education city." He has
been talking to Nanyang University, Singapore and New York University for different programs. He plans to use the same
change-of-affiliation route, though things have now gotten easier. Thank you Kapil Sibal, Gupta must surely be saying.
The Foreign Hand That Won't Work
Now that the Cabinet has approved the entry of foreign universities into India, expect education to go the way of the dot-
com and the real estate boom of the last decade. Shocking, no? Totally. This in spite of both the minister--Sibal--and the
entrepreneur--Gupta--wanting to do the right thing.
If the minister thinks that by allowing in foreign universities he can help significantly more Indians graduate, it's not going
to happen. If Gupta thinks that by rapidly scaling up his campuses he can deliver education of a quality that makes
students employable, then that, too, is a stretch.
Since the bill was approved, all of six universities have shown an inclination to enter India. Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech,
Schulich School of Business, Boston University, Middlesex University and Duke University.
But what about the big names: Harvard, Cambridge, Yale, Stanford? Don't hold your breath. They won't be coming. Not
any time soon. That's ugly reality number one.
Philip Altbach, director, Center for International Higher Education, Boston College, has been studying the foreign
university phenomenon for a while. He says, "With the experience of some other countries, the ones who come in will be
low end, not the Harvards, Stanfords or Oxfords. They may come in a small way: Just to build their brand or recruit
students to come back to the main campus." These storied institutions have built themselves over hundreds of years.
They will not risk cutting down on quality. And add to that the danger of brand dilution. "Our world-class research
programs and our culture of multidisciplinary collaboration, which relies on having a critical mass of expertise in a variety
of disciplines, cannot be easily replicated and transplanted elsewhere," says John Hennessey, president, Stanford
University. "We are loath to consider creating a satellite campus that would offer a degree program that did not live up to
the quality that we can offer on our home campus."