The document discusses the challenges and contradictions faced by India's higher education system in the context of globalization, including issues of quality, commercialization, and the influence of a powerful education mafia. It highlights the growing demand for foreign educational standards among Indian students while noting the government's inadequate response and the complexity of social justice in educational access. Furthermore, it critiques the privatization of education, societal divides, and the role of regulatory bodies in maintaining educational standards and integrity.

1. Indian higher education under
globalization
Rajesh Kochhar
Former Director, National Inst of Sci, Tech & Development Studies
( Govt of India) New Delhi
Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
rkochhar2000@gmail.com
Trinity College Dublin
28-June-2016
1

2. • Higher education is now classified as an
internationally tradable service. However for
historical, cultural and ideological reasons it is
quite unlike others. Permitting foreign
education providers to operate in India is not
like permitting an insurance company or a
department store. Similarly collaboration in
education is not as simple as in telecom.
2

3. • In India, all the social divides, disconnects,
tensions and feelings of discomfort and
mistrust that globalization has created or
accentuated have become visible factors in
discussions, debates, executive decisions as
well as attempted or aborted legislative
initiatives on education.
3

4. • India has not been able to build an across-the-
board consensus on globalization-era higher
education policy.
• At any given time there are a number of
contrary pulls at work so that it is not possible
to predict the outcome. A 2010 article in the
American Time magazine refers to
‘exasperating mix of politics and regulations’.
• The exasperation partly arises from
inadequate comprehension of the inherent
contradictions.
4

5. • Ever since it began liberalizing its economy in the
early 1990s, India has been able to maintain a
high growth rate which has been driven by service
sector rather than agriculture or manufacture.
• There now exists in India an affluent middle class
which though small as a fraction of the whole
population is large in absolute numbers.
• Much to the excitement of Western manufacture,
India is now a market for a vast variety of goods
ranging from Mercedes and BMW down to
Hollywood movies and serials, branded apparel
and cosmetics. 5

6. • Not content with access to foreign goods, a
section of Indians now wants access to
Western quality education also. Many students
believe that a foreign degree would help them
find employment abroad.
6

7. • To sum up in advance, India’s own education
is largely decoupled from quality and
employability.
• Government has abdicated its responsibility
while privatization has brought about crass
commercialization. Clamour for education
from foreign providers has grown, but since
this will help only a tiny fraction of
population, the requisite political support is not
forthcoming.
7

8. • Up to a couple of decades after Independence
(1947), Indian education was very good value for
money. With rare exceptions, education was
entirely in the hands of the government, fees were
very low and quality was high.
Its two limitations should however be noted. The
actual numbers were small, and both the students
and faculty were mostly drawn from among the
Upper Castes.
8

9. Privatization
• As demand for education arose, India was unable to
maintain standards or pump in the requisite funds.
• The government expenditure on higher education
stands at a paltry 0.5% of GDP.
• Government salaries are fairly high so that the
actual amount spent on education itself would be
abysmally low.
• Taking an easy way out, and as part of globalized
economy, the government permitted privatization.
• However, very few of the new initiatives have
come from philanthropists. 9

10. • The new players which include politicians and ex-
politicians are driven by lure of easy money.
• As a result, a powerful education mafia has arisen.
This mafia is routinely able to influence
legislative and executive decisions and at times
even judicial pronouncements.
10

11. • In India education is on the concurrent list
meaning that both the Central government and
individual State governments can set up
universities. The later have often misused the
provision.
• Thus, in 2005, the Supreme Court, acting on a
public interest litigation by an eminent
educationist, annulled the establishment of as
many as 116 universities which the newly formed
State of Chhatisgarh had permitted, obviously on
extraneous considerations.
11

12. • The rot privatization has brought to professional
education can further be seen from the fact that in
2010 the president of the Medical Council of
India, entrusted with the task of regulating
medical education, was arrested for taking a huge
bribe from a private medical college.
• Government agencies having failed to discipline
private professional colleges, the responsibility
has fallen on the Supreme Court which can err
but at least has the courage and mechanism for
self-correction
12

13. 13
Medical education
• India today has more than 400 medical colleges
more than half of which are privately owned.
Left to themselves, they would admit students
purely on the basis of the hefty illegal capitation
fee. State-level government colleges on their part
would rather prepare a local merit list rather than
abide by a national one.
• In 2010, a two-judge Supreme Court Bench
ordered conducting a single National Eligibility-
cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to all
medical colleges.

14. • In 2013, in a retrograde decision, the Supreme
Court struck down NEET thus handing a
bonanza to private colleges.
• It is noteworthy that this was the last legal
pronouncement by the Chief Justice because
he retired from service the next day on
completing his term.
• It has been widely believed that the judgment
was based on extraneous considerations.
14

15. • Three years later, in April 2016, the Supreme
Court recalled the infamous 2013 judgment, thus
restoring the common test. The judgment
summarily asked that NEET be implemented
this year itself for all medical colleges be they
States or private institutions including deemed
universities or minority institutions.
•
15

16. • To help the State colleges but not the others, the
Government issued a Presidential Ordinance in
May 2016 permitting only the State colleges to
make their own admissions for this year. The
Court has refused to stay the Ordinance but
reserved the right to examine its validity.
• It is now certain that from next year all medical
admissions will be done on the basis of the result
of a nationally conducted test, thanks to the
firmness shown by the Supreme Court.
16

17. 17
• I have already referred to the arrest of the
chairman of the Medical Council of India on
corruption charges.
• Early May 2016, using the extraordinary power
given to it by the Constitution, the Supreme Court
appointed a three-member committee headed by a
former chief justice to oversee the statutory
working of the Medical Council.
• The Court initiative is meant to force the
government’s hand because ‘The Committee will
function till the Central Government puts in place
any other appropriate mechanism.’

18. 18
• While one feels happy with the pro-active stance of
the Supreme Court, the discomforting thought
persists that left to themselves the government and
its regulatory bodies will let the things slide down
further.
• At present there are no foreign players in Indian
medical education.
• My aim has been to emphasize that higher education
in India has come to be dominated by unscrupulous
and greedy elements and state institutions are
fighting rearguard action to contain them.

19. Compulsions of social justice
• Anybody interested in a rewarding, enduring
and profitable engagement with India would
find it useful to obtain some acquaintance with
India’s notoriously complex social
anthropology.
19

20. Table. Break-up of education-related
Indian population groups
No Group Current share in
population
1 Upper Castes 25-35%
2 Other Backward Classes 40-50%
3 Scheduled Castes 16.6% (exact)
4 Scheduled Tribes 08.6% (exact)
Note that the government releases exact data in case of
(3) and (4) but not for (1) and (2) 20

21. • For reasons of social justice, which the Upper
Castes resent, half the seats in government academic
institutions fall in the Reserved Category. More
specifically, 15 % of the seats in government
academic institutions are reserved for the Scheduled
Castes (the erstwhile untouchables); 7.5% for
Scheduled Tribes (the indigenous people) and 27%
for the middling castes, known as Other Backward
Classes (OBCs).
21

22. • In other words, only 50.5% of educational
seats are in the General Unreserved category
for which the Upper Castes must compete.
• It is noteworthy that the term affirmative
action which has positive connotation the
world over is not used in any Indian discourse.
• Rather, the two terms in use are Reservation
and Quota, both with an element of derision in
them.
22

23. • Right from the beginning of English education
200 years ago, till recently, the education scene
was dominated by the Upper Castes.
• If globalization had not taken place, the Upper
Castes would have willy nilly adjusted to the new
realities and accepted a diminished role consistent
with their actual numbers. Globalization has
provided them with an escape route.
• The Upper Castes have ‘denationalized’
themselves and turned towards the West.
23

24. • Neither the entrants into education field nor
government regulators have shown any concern
about quality.
• There are about 3500 engineering colleges with as
many as 1.7 million seats.
• In most cases, education is waste of money and
youth.
• Only about 18% are employable in IT sector; and
7.5% in mechanical, electronics/electrical and civil
branches. Placement figures can be misleading also.
24

25. • In many cases, the graduate engineer is offered
trivial work and low salary.
• The government regulators are now seriously
considering reducing the number of
undergraduate seats by as much as 40% over
the next few years.
25

26. Going abroad
• Profile of Indian students going abroad has
changed over years.
• Earlier students completed their university
education in India, earned good grades and
obtained scholarships to be able to study in a
foreign university.
• Some 12 years ago Chris Patten, Chancellor of
Oxford University, during his visit to New
Delhi, lamented that the quality of Indian
students coming to UK had fallen.
26

27. • A substantial number of merited Indian students used
to come to England on scholarship.
• However once UK discontinued giving scholarship,
bright students headed for USA.
• The average age of outgoing Indian students has
come down.
• More and more young men and women are now going
out even for undergraduate studies by obtaining
foreign exchange through Reserve Bank of India.
• How many Indian students are out of the country for
higher education, and what is the foreign exchange
outgo on this count?
27

28. • It is a characteristic of the Indian situation that
reliable data is not available and figures are being
created by interested parties to serve their
partisan ends.
• I am inclined to place reliance on figures
provided by Unesco Institute of Statistics
according to which there were as many as 180000
students studying abroad in 2012. Out of these
50% were based in USA.
• UK came next with 13%. (Ireland accounted for
536 Indian students.) 28

29. • A realistic figure on the attendant foreign
exchange outgo would probably be $4 bn.
• In contrast, figures provided by ASSOCHAM, an
organization representing and promoting the
interests of trade and commerce in India, are very
high.
• It said in 2008 that there were 450000 students
abroad costing India $13 bn.
• Its corresponding figures for 2013 are 650000
students and $ 18 bn.
29

30. • In the absence of any data released by Reserve
Bank of India, it is not clear how ASSOCHAM
arrived at its numbers.
• I suspect ASSOCHAM is exaggerating the
figures. As an enthusiastic advocate of total de-
regulation of education, it probably believes that
higher forex outgo figures would strengthen the
case for permitting foreign universities to
operate from India.
30

31. • Irrespective of the exact numbers, two features of the
phenomenon need to be noticed.
• (i)Not all Indian students who go abroad are interested
in studies. Many are below-average or semi-literates
who are interested merely in obtaining a student visa as
a first step towards being eventually absorbed in a
Western country.
• Mushrooming of bogus institutions in various countries
including Ireland to cater to students from South Asia
and the attendant visa rackets are well known
phenomena.
• This class of students would neither be eligible for nor
interested in seeking admission into an Indian branch
campus of a foreign university. 31

32. • (ii) Outgoing students officially raise money in
India to meet admission and visa requirements and
for sustenance on arrival.
• They would try to work while students, send
money home to lessen the loan burden on their
families make their foreign stay self-supporting as
soon as possible.
• In other words, the net foreign exchange outgo for
higher studies would be smaller than any quoted
figure.
32

33. • It has been estimated that more than 60% of
the (big) loans are taken by offering family
home as a collateral. Surely the foreign-going
student would like to recover the family
property as soon as possible.
• (Note that most bad loans are of amounts
smaller than Rs 400000 for which no collateral
is demanded.) During the last five years bad
loans have increased 120%.
33

34. • In any case financial aspects have not been a
factor in Indian discourse on off-shore campuses.
• While the governments almost invariably tend to
be favourably disposed towards businesses,
industries and interests of beneficiaries of
globalization, they must reckon with the
Parliament.
• Thanks to the dynamics of numbers inherent in a
democracy Indian Parliament is dominated by
representatives of rural economy, weaker sections
and under- privileged groups.
34

35. • In other words, the Indian Parliament does not
have much sympathy for votaries and
beneficiaries of globalization.
• In the view of most parliamentarians foreign
university campuses would add to the
privileges of the already privileged class and
undermine the social justice of state-run
education.
35

36. Branch campuses
• A bill was sought to be introduced in the
Parliament by the then government in 2010 but it
lapsed five years later owing to strong across-the
board objections.
• The bill included a clause saying that profits
made from the campus would not be permitted to
be expatriated. This obviously does not suit the
foreign education providers who are not driven
by altruism but by considerations of dollars and
cents.
36

37. • To accommodate them, a modified bill is now
being prepared for placing before the
Parliament.
• It differs from the old one in an important
aspect; it would permit the foreign branch
campuses to expatriate profits.
37

38. • An on-line article warns that ‘ Foreign
universities will be taking a risk if they enter
India’, arguing that ‘Assuming that foreign
universities are eventually permitted to set up
campuses on terms that are favourable to them –
especially with respect to autonomy – they will
still have to consider the possibility that regular
and persistent attempts will be made by the
government to reinterpret and redefine the
meaning and scope of that autonomy’.
38

39. • Some commentators have hoped that the
Parliament would pass the foreign university bill.
• I personally think this to be unlikely.
• It would be difficult for Indian Parliament to
permit two distinct sets of regulations, one for
Indian universities and the other for foreign ones.
• It is not clear whether the bill when introduced can
find the requisite support in the two Houses of the
Parliament.
• In any case branch campuses are not going to crop
up in the near future.
39

40. • If foreign universities cannot come to India, can
their faculty come and teach?
• This model was briefly tried.
• A 2004 agreement between US-based Virginia
Tech and Bombay-based well-regarded SP Jain
Institute of Management and Research permitted
Bombay students to obtain US degree without
leaving the country.
40

41. • The curriculum came from Virginia Tech whose
professors in collaboration with Bombay
faculty as co-instructor offered long-distance
audio/slide courses.
• Once a semester, US faculty spent a week in
Bombay for personal teaching and interaction.
• The program was declared to be a success by
both sides, by Virginia Tech because of the
revenue it generated and by the SP Jain because
of the benefit it brought to the students.
41

42. • The program however had to be abandoned after
the 2007-8 academic year because the government
regulators objected to the repatriation of profits.
• To sum up so far, we notice that when it comes to
privatized education entirely in Indian hands, the
administration displays utter lack of will to protect
the interests of students and of education; the task
is left to higher judiciary.
• However when it comes to the involvement of
foreign providers, there is an all round sense of
unease at bureaucratic and political levels.
42

43. Franchise degree
• Currently there are two programs involving
foreign universities: franchise and twinning.
• A number of recently established technical
education providers, which ‘have the look and
feel of a corporate house and not necessarily an
academic institution’, have entered into
collaborative arrangement with many British (and
other) universities whereby Indian students carry
out all their studies in India but receive foreign
degrees.
• The arrangement is not as attractive as it seems.
43

44. • Most of the British collaborating institutions are
the so-called new universities which were
polytechnics till recently.
• Their standing in their home country is not very
high.
• I wonder how many of you know about the likes
of De Montfort, Edinburgh Napier, Liverpool
John Moores, Queen Margaret universities.
• Such providers are keen to gain entry into India
because of the useful inflow of cash.
44

45. • In many cases, their income from foreign students is
much more than generated from UK/EU students.
• In 2008, as many as 358 Indian students registered
with the Oxford Brookes program. With each paying
a fee of £500, the University earned the substantial
amount of £179000. University of Wales makes less
than half a million pounds in UK/EU fees but earns
seven million in validation fees.
45

46. • Most of the programs are in IT, business
management, hospitality and tourism etc which are
inexpensive to set up and operate.
• Oxford Brookes franchises a program but does not
permit Indian students access to its own ‘learning
resources’.
• The curriculum offered in these franchise
arrangements is not identical, the faculty is local and
delivery method not the same as in UK classroom
with the result that the students do not get ‘feel and
experience’ of a UK college.
46

47. • Franchise degrees are not recognized in India.
• Thus a student who obtains BBA ( Bachelor in
Business Administration) cannot do MBA
from an Indian institution nor apply for job in
public sector.
• How the qualification is viewed by private
employers and in foreign countries is a
separate matter.
47

48. • In 2011 the Glasgow-based University of
Strathclyde Business School (SBS) set up a joint
School in collaboration with SKIL Infrastructure,
at Noida near Delhi.
• The well-known Indian newsmagazine India
Today gushingly sought to convince its readers
why ‘Strathclyde will soon be a coveted name in
India’.
• This has not happened; the venture was declared
a failure and closed down. Reason was that the
students considered it a bad investment.
48

49. • Strathclyde degree cost twice the amount a
local MBA would, but the placement salaries
in both cases were the same.
• In 2011 itself, Middlesex University was
forced to abandon its foray into India because
the Indian partner decided to pull out from the
envisaged joint program.
49

50. • Ironically while established foreign brands (like
Adidas or Apple) go to considerable effort and
expense to curb fake products, these foreign
education providers willingly join hands with
their Indian counterparts in clear violation of the
extant regulations.
• All India Council for Technical Education
(AICTE) has laid down that Indian technical
education providers should be recognized by it
and they in turn obtain approval for the courses
they are offering.
50

51. • Furthermore, ‘Foreign University/Institution
seeking to operate in India either directly or
through collaborative arrangement with an
India University/Institution’ must obtain prior
approval by submitting details of facilities,
staffing, fees, courses, curricula and funding
arrangements for a period of three years, to be
verified by a site visit.
• In most cases, all three conditions are being
violated.
51

52. • Indian partner of Edinburgh Napier University
has ingenuously quoted its own lawyer (and
not the rule or a court judgment) to ‘confirm’
that their ‘partnership does not require a
separate approval from AICTE’ (It does!).
52

53. • Lancaster University is running a successful and
profitable, albeit unapproved, program with an
‘unrecognized’ GD Goenka World Institute.
Lancaster would like Goenka to be recognized
as a university so that the partnership is ‘in full
compliance of all local regulations’.
• It is however unlikely that Lancaster would
cancel its arrangement with Goenka till
regulations are complied with.
• It not clear how long the uncertainty would last or
how it would affect the health of the franchise
program. 53

54. • Recently, the Reserve Bank of India governor
Raghuram Rajan cautioned the students that they
should not fall prey to 'unscrupulous schools' which
leave them with high debt and ‘useless degrees’.
• This would apply to useless degrees earned in India
or abroad.
54

55. Twinning/ Credit-transfer
• At present, the safest bets are those where both the
partners are recognized universities.
• Globalization-era Indian higher education places too
much emphasis on business management. Many
twinning arrangements are in fields such as
hospitality industry and event management, which
need not concern us here.
• There are some notable exceptions in that the degree
is in engineering.
55

56. • A student completes the first half of their studies
in India. If they obtain good grades and visa, they
can study in a foreign university and obtain the
latter’s degree.
• Credit share is a good option, because the degree
is foreign but the cost is much less than would be
for a full-degree abroad.
• Studying abroad is good education for young
Indians, apart from the degree. Lessons in dignity
of labour and social equality that a foreign
sojourn offers would not be easily available back
home.
56

57. • Indian student are generally speaking well-
mannered, hard-working and obedient. Indian social
system however does not much encourage boldness
of thought and action.
• Severe shortcomings of Indian pre-professional
education system should be noted.
• Indian examination system has been warped by the
process of admission to a professional college.
• (i)Linguistic skills of Indian students tend to be low.
57

58. • Indian society values obedience very highly and
prefers politeness to truthfulness. The boldness of
thought and action that is expected from the youth
later is not encouraged in their formative years.
• Indian education system has been twisted out of
shape by the entrance test syndrome. Conceptual
clarity and practical training have disappeared from
the scene.
58

59. • Students are forced to master the technique of
multiple-choice entrance tests so that they can get
a good rank which would get them admission into
a higher-ranking college.
• Because of the excessive emphasis placed on
science and mathematics in school education,
linguistic skills of Indian students generally tend
to be low.
• Parent University could offer an additional,
bridge, course, to twinning students to prepare
them for the later studies in a foreign university.
59

60. To sum up
• Of all the foreign-related educational options in
India, twinning/credit share remains the best bet.
• The students who graduate from this program
would expect to get well-paid jobs in Western
countries.
• To what extent their expectations are met by the
market would determine the success or otherwise
of the program.
60

61. 61
• (i) In India, matters rarely if ever get resolved. An
opening which appears to appear may soon
disappear. Conversely, issues presumed dead and
buried can rise again.
• Therefore, Indian scene should be monitored
closely and continually. More specifically,
official notifications and legal pronouncements
need to be carefully studied so that there are
neither missed opportunities nor unpleasant
surprises.

62. • (ii) Rules say that if for some reason a student
admitted to a twinning course cannot go abroad,
they should be able to get the degree from the
parent college.
• There are a large number of private colleges in
India which admit students of low merit. While
expanding its engagement in India, a foreign
university should choose its Indian partners
carefully, making sure that the credentials of the
transfer students are not substantially lower than
those of the home students.
62

63.  (iii)When a student takes admission in a
foreign university for a full course, they have
ample time for adjustments of various types.
This will not be the case when foreign students
land in the class room half way through the
course.
63

64. A culturally and ethnically diverse class
room may be a novelty for many
students, faculty and administrators. They
should all be consciously prepared for
the new experience so that wrong
signals are not given out and
given-out signals are not
misread.//
64

65. Thank you
Please feel free to contact me
for any additional information
or clarification
Rajesh Kochhar
rkochhar2000@gmail.com
65

66. Notes and References
• For a competent general review, see Agarwal, Pawan (2006)
Higher education in India: The need for change (New Delhi: Indian
Council for Research on International Economic Relations,
Working Paper 180): Bhushan ,S (2006) 'Foreign Education
Providers in India: Mapping the Extent and Regulation'(The
Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, Report March 2006);
• Hannon, Elliot (2010)
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,202
6887,00.html
• Mahapatra, Dhananjay
(2013)http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/CJI-
Altamas-Kabirs-final-judgment-comes-as-boon-for-
private-medical-colleges/articleshow/21153402.cms
66

67. • R. Kochhar (2004) Denationalised middle class: Global
escape from Mandal. Economic & Political Weekly, Vol.
39, No.1 (3 Jan.), p. 20; R. Kochhar (2009)
Globalization, Mandalization and the Indian middle
class, In: Culture, Society and Development in India
(eds: Manoj Kumar Sanyal and Arunabha Ghosh)
(Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan), pp. 23-32.
• http://www.livemint.com/Politics/BphkOxYuir6OaYcTrBtldJ/AICTE-to-cut-number-
of-engineering-college-seats-by-600000.html
• http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/student-
loans-dry-up-as-bad-debts-climb-at-
banks/article7913751.ece
• http://thewire.in/2015/09/24/foreign-universities-will-be-
taking-a-risk-if-they-enter-india-11541
67

68. • Wildavsky, Ben (2010)The Great Brain Race: How
Global Universities are Reshaping the World
(Princeton University Press), p. 63.
• http://www.university.careers360.com/news/4679-
UK-Degrees-Validity-British-Accreditation-Council
• http://www.researchresearch.com/index.php?option=
com_news&template=rr_2col&view=article&articleI
d=1096520
• Sugden, Joanna (2012)
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/its-
a-jungle-out-there/421557.article
• http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Dont-fall-
in-trap-of-schools-giving-useless-degrees-
Raghuram-Rajan/articleshow/52162715.cms
68