The recently announced draft Bill for Foreign Institutions of Post-Secondary Education in India has received mixed responses from educationists and policy-makers. While some have welcomed this proposal, many others have questioned the incongruence between the stated purposes and the various provisions and rules in the draft Bill. These debates have brought into focus a range of issues that confront the provision of educational programmes to meet the growing needs of Indian society and the economy. The provisions of this Bill were recently debated in an Indo-Canadian seminar in Ottawa, jointly organized by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Association of Universities and Colleges in Canada (AUCC).
The dialogue in this seminar was aimed at âStriving for Excellence in Strategic Engagement with Indiaâ. To discuss the complexity of developing partnerships in India, several panelists from Canada and the UK presented their experiences. In addition, some case studies which are âstriving for excellenceâ in the provision of educational programmes for Indian students were also shared. Most standard and commonplace examples from several large and prestigious Canadian universities were about expanding the access of Indian students primarily in engineering, technology and management courses. These partnerships with Indian providers of post-secondary education thus focused on delivery of standard courses (which are available to students in Canadian universities) in India. Some partnerships had construction companies as Indian counterparts since they are setting up educational campuses in India!
The race to expand access for Indian students seems to be dampening the exploration of innovations in designing and delivering educational programmes that have relevance to Indian society, not just the Indian economy. Two examples shared in this seminar are worth describing here. The first one is a programme of research and education on a wide range of topics covered under the Indo-Canadian Studies being carried out by Simon Fraser Valley University. The demand for such educational provisions from the local Indo-Canadian community led the university to design this innovative programme in partnership with Punjab University. It offers a wide range of courses, including in business, which students in Canada and Punjab need to become good citizens of Canada and Punjab, and to appreciate and support distinctive features of both societies.
The second innovative programme has been designed by University of Victoria (Uvic) in partnership with PRIA. This masterâs programme in community development has its curriculum and pedagogy jointly prepared by faculty from UVic and practitioners in PRIA. It is aimed to professionalize the education of development professionals for students around the world. It combines practical knowledge from field projects with academic knowledge.
These two innovative examples shared in the above seminar seem to suggest that the proposed regulatory framework for internationalization of Indian post-secondary education may be exclusively focused upon the pressures of expanding access in a narrow bandwidth of subjects (technology and management) that the growing Indian economy demands today. This framework doesnât seem to incentivize innovation in globalizing post-secondary educational provisions in India (and the developing world), which may well be required for building, and rebuilding, Indian society as it faces several tectonic shifts (like rural to urban migration). Mere focus on engineering and business education, and that too provided in pre-packaged formats, may reflect the short-term needs of a growing Indian economy, but not the long-term challenges faced by a rapidly changing Indian society.
It would be a pity if the proposed policy and legislation for regulating post-secondary education in India ends up stifling innovation and merely incentivizing delivery of pre-packaged curriculum in a cost-effective manner for a limited range of disciplines.
Should the debate around such concerns be raised?
Rajesh Tandon
21 June 2010
