Collaboration with international universities

Currently a lot of din is made among the public by Indian universities for collaboration with international universities for studies and research. It is the Government of India which has taken up the cudgel in promoting the concept of tie up with foreign universities and has even opened the floodgate to them. The Government has also justified its action for attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Therefore there is an alround attempt by many players in education sector to grab the opportunities to have tie up with foreign institutions. Many in the public also think universities having a tie up with foreign universities are great institutions and craving for admitting their wards in these institutes at any cost. Even some of the local universities rejoice in advertising that they have obtained accreditation from foreign certifying agencies like ABET (Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology), USA. Such move is an outcome of globalisation. However, if we look into the background of the whole episode it turns to be a sordid affair. At present international universities are starving for fund and are unable to muster enough money to run their shows. They require adequate money. The social system in their country is such that they do not get enough students for higher education programmes. Some of the universities also do not receive government grants. All these issues have driven these universities to look for green pastures like India where great number of students are available for higher education. A lot of black money is also a crystallising factor to establish tie up foreign universities. Indian universities are also in a mood to earn huge sum of money in quickest possible time. This has fuelled a tie up between local institutions and their counterpart abroad. Even now some universities talk of ‘semester abroad’ and ‘twinning’ programmes. Therefore when the collaboration is based purely on business consideration it remains to be seen how quality and standard would be improved in Indian education as a result of tie up with foreign universities.