(Thanks to Prof. Moshe Vardi of Rice University for this pointer.)
This is based on the data made available at http://acarem.hse.ru/data where the faculty compensations (both salaries and perks such as housing) are compared on a PPP (purchasing power parity) basis in 26 countries. Following are some bullet points based on that data.
In terms of academic salaries of entry level faculty at public universities the list with the per month salary in PPP US Dollars is: Canada (5733), Italy (5029), US (4950), Germany (4885), Norway (4491), UK (4077), India (3954), Australia (3930), South Africa (3927), Israel (3525), Netherlands (3472), Saudi Arabia (3457), Argentina (3151), Japan (2897), Malaysia (2824), Nigeria (2758), Czech Republic (2562?), Turkey (2027), France (1973), Columbia (1965), Brazil (1858), Mexico (1336), Latvia (1087), Kazakhstan (1037), Ethiopia (864), Russia (433), Armenia (405), China (259).
In terms of academic salaries of top level faculty at public universities the list with the per month salary in PPP US Dollars is: Canada (9485), South Africa (9330), Italy (9118), Saudi Arabia (8524), UK (8369), Malaysia (7864), Australia (7499), India (7433), US (7358), Netherlands (7123), Germany (6383), Israel (6377), Nigeria (6229), Norway (5847), France (4775), Japan (4604), Brazil (4550), Argentina (4385), Columbia (4058), Czech Republic (3967), Turkey (3898), Mexico (2730), Latvia (2654), Kazakhstan (2304), Ethiopia (1580), China (1107), Russia (910), Armenia (665).
In terms of ratio of monthly salaries to GDP per capita per month for entry level faculty at public universities: Ethiopia (130%), Nigeria (116%), India (110%), South Africa (45%), Argentina (23%), Columbia (23%), Malaysia (20%), Turkey (19%), Brazil (18%), Italy (16%), Canada (13%), Germany (12%), Israel (12%), Saudi Arabia (12%), UK (11%), US (11%), Czech Republic, Mexico (10%), Australia (8%), Japan (8%), Netherlands (8%), Armenia (7%), Kazakhstan (7%), Norway (7%), France (6%), Latvia (6%), China (4%), Russia (2%).
In terms of ratio of monthly salaries to GDP per capita per month for top level faculty at public universities: Nigeria (262%), Ethiopia (238%), India (207%), South Africa (107%), Malaysia (56%), Columbia (47%), Brazil (43%), Turkey (36%), Argentina (32%), Italy (30%), Saudi Arabia (29%), Canada (22%), Israel (22%), UK (22%), Mexico (21%), Germany (17%), Australia (16%), Kazakhstan (16%), Latvia (16%), US (16%), China (15%), Czech Republic (15%), Netherlands (15%), France (14%), Japan (13%), Armenia (12%), Norway (9%), Russia (5%).
Housing:
Provided to all by law: India, Latvia, Nigeria
Widely used to attract best faculty: China, Saudi Arabia
Important part of contract negotiations: Kazhakstan, Turkey
Not influential in contract negotiations: Canada, Ethiopia, Japan, South Africa, UK
Not offered: Rest
Retirement funds
Not offered: Kazakhstan
Widely used to attract best faculty: UK, China, Canada
Provided to all by law: Rest (includes India)
One can also use the numbers in http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17543356 to do further comparison. For example, the average income in India is $295/month in PPP dollars. So an entry level faculty in a public university in India earns $3954/295=13.4 times of an average Indian. In contrast, an entry level faculty in a public university in US earns $4950/3263= 1.52 times of an average American.
Recognizing the need for leveraging on the creative knowledge, we are also planning to set up 14 Innovation Universities, to begin with, aiming at world class standards which will set benchmarks for excellence for the Central and State Universities. Each of the Innovation University shall consistently aspire for attainment of pinnacle of knowledge and will provide the knowledge manpower of the country in training professionals, specialists, scientists and researchers needed by the supporting national innovation system. Government has already framed a legislation for Universities of Research and Innovation which will provide a facilitating framework for creation of these institutions. These universities would be embedded in ecosystems developed for promoting synergies among education, research and incubation centres or industry
In order to be truly innovative, these Innovation Universities will not be clones of each other, but will focus on one deep theme of innovation and will focus on one area or problem of global significance in general and India in particular, by building an ecosystem of research and teaching around related discipline and fields and will search for solutions that are globally valid. For example, such areas may focus on urbanization public health, water security, environmental sustainability, digital literacy etc. The proposed universities will be autonomous in true sense, designing their own knowledge disciplines, admission criteria, academic programmes, credit systems etc. The programmes shall also facilitate horizontal mobility across disciplines.
…
We have realized that traditional models of public funded universities are not enough as the investment required is too high. We do acknowledge the need for policies to encourage private investment in higher education and the Foreign Education Providers’ Bill, now under consideration of the Parliament, is a decisive step in that direction. Although Government will be prime facilitator of the new innovation universities and innovation clusters, it is also proposed to focus on Public Private Partnerships (PPP) mode. It is also proposed to collaborate with Universities elsewhere in the world and they may be invited to set up similar such institutions in India and Government will support its research and establishment needs and teaching including scholarships may be funded by the promoting university. New Greenfield Innovation Universities supporting an already existing University/Institution of repute to attain world class standards through innovation in chosen areas of knowledge as well as Identification of some educational hubs in the country, where a few institutions of excellence are located and create an architecture of Innovation University by promoting synergy for teaching and research among such institutions are the models that we are aiming at promoting.
Cluster Innovation Centers
We have also planned creation of Cluster Innovation Centres in our Higher Education Institutions for promoting linkages for innovations, and R&D for solving the real problems and creation of products and processes for which systemic reforms have already been initiated for facilitating the linkages with industry and society. The Cluster Innovation Centres will provide a platform for the University and its partners to forge linkages between various stakeholders from industry and academia and to act as catalysts and facilitators. We have prepared a blueprint for setting up about 50 innovation centres of excellence in different frontier areas. Cambridge Cluster in UK as well as Trinity College founded by Cambridge Science Park are two prominent examples from UK which have promoted the growth of enterprise and innovation and created thriving innovation ecosystems. Such examples also exists in US (MIT, Silicon Valley – Stanford University), Israel, Germany, Sweden, Japan, China and Korea. Biggest strength of these clusters has been the cooperation and collaboration, where all actors are connected in symbiotic relationships. We are also aiming to scale up such National Innovation Clusters. We already have a few such schemes in the form of Technology Business Incubators and Technology Entrepreneur Promotion.
Collaboration with UK
The Cluster Innovation Centers and Innovation Universities are the specific areas in which we seek further collaboration with UK Institutions who have already innovated and scaled up by creating appropriate framework and institutionalized the same successfully.
Meta Universities
Seizing the new opportunities and leveraging the National Knowledge Network, the National Innovation Council has also proposed to create the first Global Meta University. With a network of Universities coming together offering courses cutting across disciplines, the Meta University will reinterpret the concept of a University as not just a traditional, physical space of learning, but as a repository of knowledge and information that can be delivered in multiple ways, and can be accessed from anywhere and anytime. It will seek to enhance the learning experience through new and innovative delivery models of education that allow students and institutions to collaborate in unprecedented ways. Thus the 21st century meta-university would be a network and an ecosystem rather than a single brick and mortar space – a Facebook of Institutions. A few central institutions located at Delhi, like Jawaharlal Nehru University, University of Delhi, Jamia-Millia Islamia and IIT-Delhi have already initiated steps to constitute a meta-university. Here also, we are looking forward to collaborate with Institutions from the United Kingdom in the next step for creation of global meta alliances. Though the internet and technology are fundamental to this conception of the Meta University, at the crux is not a new technology but a ‘new pedagogy’ that is more in tune with the requirements of the knowledge society of the 21st century. In such an environment there is a greater focus on a learner centric, collaborative model that allows continuous learning from the environment.
The US$50 million donated to Harvard by the Tata conglomerate is the largest gift received by the school from an international donor in its 102-year history. The Mahindra Group invested US$10 million in a new academic and residential building – the Mahindra Humanities Center – on the school’s campus. Harvard will construct a Tata Hall for its Executive Education program in the group’s honor.
Both tycoons are Harvard alumni. Ratan Tata, 73, the chairman of Tata Sons Ltd, attended the school’s advanced management program – one of the three leadership programs offered by Harvard’s executive education program – in 1975. Mahindra, 55, vice chairman and managing director of one of India’s largest companies, Mahindra & Mahindra, earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Harvard Business School.
… Like the Tatas and Mahindras, ex-Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, along with his wife Rohini, also gifted Yale University with US$5 million to underwrite the Yale India Initiative some time back. The couple’s two children are Yale and Harvard alumni. Their daughter Janhavi graduated from Yale and is now pursuing a doctorate at Harvard while son Nihar is still studying at Yale.
Nilekani’s ex-colleague – Infosys co-founder and chief mentor N. R. Narayana Murthy – has also helped Harvard University initiate a new series on the literary heritage of India via a US$5.2 million endowment.
… Wipro founder Azim Premji is reportedly planning an endowment trust in India, modeled on the lines of the Harvard Management Company, which supports Harvard University’s educational goals. Nandan Nilekani gave US$5 million to his alumni IIT, Mumbai in 2000. The Tatas, similarly, have been in the forefront of donating generously to institutions of academic excellence in India.
Several IIT alumni have also made donations to their home institutions and other premier institutes of learning. IIT-Delhi has partnered with the Bharti Foundation to set up the Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology and Management. There’s also a Bharti Centre for Communication, Mumbai, set up in partnership with IIT-Powai. The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, has also succeeded in attracting private funding as well.
Besides this, Infosys is starting a campus in Hyderabad with the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. Corporate houses and individuals are also entering primary education in a big way. The Bharti Foundation has started 236 Satya Bharti primary schools across the country.
Virginia Tech officials touted the university’s offerings Monday to a delegation from India — the leader of which could help the university open a new campus in the world’s second-most populous country.
With support from Indian company MARG Ltd., Tech has been working for about four years on a plan to build a university near India’s fifth-most-populous city, Chennai.
If approved, the campus would sit on about 30 acres in the state of Tamil Nadu, where a 70,000-square-foot facility would be built and would offer master’s and doctorate programs for about 300 students in engineering and science.
All academic and research functions would be overseen by Tech. Tuition and fees, admissions criteria and degree requirements would be the same in India as in the United States.
"It would be a Virginia Tech degree," Provost Mark McNamee told the delegation.
…In 1999, Tech began offering a master’s degree in information technology in conjunction with the S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research in Mumbai. The university has since established other projects and ties in India. Officials estimate about 500 Tech alumni live in the country’s southern region.
But the plan for an Indian campus is subject to passage of the foreign universities bill winding its way through the Indian Parliament. Some in India worry that allowing foreign universities in the country will increase tuition and decrease quality in the already struggling higher education sector.
Under current law, foreign universities may offer degree programs only in partnership with existing Indian institutions.
The new bill has been championed by India’s Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, who visited Tech on Monday with about a dozen other dignitaries. They were scheduled to meet with Tech President Charles Steger later in the day.
… Estimates for the total cost of the project do not yet exist, he said. But officials expect a capital outlay of $5 million will be required.
The India campus would help Tech compete for more sponsored research contracts, as well as give the university a presence in an economy supported by 1.2 billion people. Only China, with its population of 1.3 billion, is larger.
For India, the bill could help stem the tide of students streaming to American, European and Australian universities. In 2007, a government commission in India urged that the country increase its number of universities from 350 to 1,500 by 2015. Investment by foreign universities is one way to achieve that growth.
… Under the pending bill, Tech could not send revenue from India back to the United States. Likewise, Tech may use none of its state funding to establish the Indian campus, De Datta said.
Sibal has visited other American universities interested in building campuses in India, including Boston University, Georgetown University, Harvard and Yale.
According to De Datta, the Indian Parliament is expected to vote on the foreign universities bill within the next six months.
Virginia Tech has found an Indian partner for these three centres — Centre for Critical, Technical and Advanced Science, Virginia Bio Informatics Centre and Virginia Transport and Technical Institute — that are likely to be operational within a year.
… Virginia Tech has also signed a memorandum of understanding with MARG Swarnabhoomi group. The institution will be called Virginia Tech MARG Swarnabhoomi, India, and it will be the varsity’s first campus outside the US.
US-based Duke University – ranked 14th in the QS World University Rankings – is planning to set up a campus in India. However, the university management is yet to decide on the location. According to sources, it is looking for around 25 acres to set up its campus either in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh or Pune.
"We will start with a business school in the campus that will offer a diploma programme. This is a part of our plans of having a globally dispersed campus. We are looking at China and India and the campus in China is already underway," said Jaivir Singh, advisor to the dean of the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.
The expansion is part of the varsity’s plans of setting up its global campuses in Dubai, Russia, China and India.
Duke university is one of the first international institutes to announce its plans of establishing its India campus after the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) gave its approval to allow foreign universities to setup their campuses in India in March.
However, the Foreign Education Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill, 2010 is still pending in Parliament. The bill, which was to be taken up during the monsoon session of Parliament, would now be taken up during the winter session.
According to the bill, any foreign varsity entering India will have to create a $12-million corpus fund and profits will not be allowed to be expatriated to shareholders. The universities would also have to reinvest 75 per cent of profit in the school or university and the rest would become a part of the corpus fund.
Foreign universities, however, will have the right to form their own fee structure and admission rules.
Duke University said investment will not be an issue as it already satisfies the criteria set by the proposed bill.
In fact, Duke university is also looking at setting up a campus in South Africa and South America by the end of this calendar year. Like Yale, Brown and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), it is also in talks with the MHRD on partnering the upcoming 14 innovation universities. Yale and Brown, however, are not looking at setting up an India campus.
"We would like to partner the innovation universities in the space of information technology, science and the qualitative side of engineering that will make the youth employable. However, our immediate plans are to consolidate all our programmes in the country under one roof," Singh added.
The SSN School of Advanced Software Engineering (SSN SASE) has been established by Padma Bhushan Dr. Shiv Nadar – Chairman, HCL Technologies Ltd., to bring world class education to India and make it available to meritorious students of all economic strata.
Despite the Recession, all of MSIT students got jobs – At an average salary of US $95,000! Living expenditure in CMU reduced by Half.
Carniegie Mellon also has another program that students from India can take. Following is an excerpt from a report in redherring magazine.
At an Internet cafe in Delhi, India, up to 80 students sit pensively studying their computer screens. For some, it’s just like any other Internet cafe, but for others it’s a virtual university where they can take computer science courses offered by Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).
The new educational initiative is a collaboration between Sterling Infotech, an Indian Internet service provider, and Carnegie Technology Education, a subsidiary of the university, and is part of an ambitious program to train more than 100,000 Indian computer programmers at 100 locations over the next three years.
It also gives us a glimpse of the changes rippling through education. Universities with expertise in one area can now prepare, monitor, and grade courses given under local supervision in an entirely different location.
"The education model is more like, say, a Microsoft, Novell, or Cisco certification program than a traditional university course," says Allan Fisher, president and CEO of Carnegie Technology Education. "We build computer-based training courses drawing on the intellectual resources of the university, but local instructors [in India] monitor, administer, and assist the students."
The courses offered range from the basic, like software engineering, to the advanced, like object-oriented programming. "However, unlike software vendor training programs that would offer courses in Visual Basic or Java, we teach students how to work with any object-orientated language," says Mr. Fisher.
…Unlike many online education institutions, Carnegie Technology Education not only designs the course but also trains and certifies the instructors and monitors both the teachers’ and students’ progress.
Carnegie Mellon computer-science faculty members design the courses and personally select and train the local tutors who will teach the students at the partner institution. "The tutors then go back to the partner institution and teach the courses; we monitor their progress, and they have access to our computer-science faculty member to assist them with any difficulties," says Mr. Fisher.
If the student completes five courses successfully, they get a Carnegie Technology Education certificate in computer programming; if they complete ten courses, they get a certificate in software engineering.
But it’s not cheap. Each course module costs the Indian student $180, nearly three months’ earnings for those on minimum wage. However, Sterling Infotech offers students their money back if they do not get a job within three months of completing the course.
Georgia Tech says it is planning to set up a research facility in the southern city of Hyderabad in partnership with Infosys Technologies. According to a statement, the university hopes the passage of the proposed legislation will allow it to start offering master’s and doctoral degrees in India.
Carnegie Mellon University is helping the northern state of Punjab to plan courses at a new university, while Virginia Tech and Schulich have lined up Indian partners and have announced plans for new campuses near Chennai and in Hyderabad, respectively.
…The British University of Wolverhampton, for instance, is reaching out to working professionals — junior to midlevel managers who have a few years of experience. It plans to teach business courses through its Indian partner, Bishop Heber College, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, and is happy with this arrangement.
The Schulich School of Business also started out with an Indian partner. In January of this year, it started a joint master of business administration degree program with Mumbai’s S.P. Jain Institute of Management Research. But even as it began this partnership, it was in advanced talks with the GMR Group, a consortium of mostly infrastructure companies, to set up an independent campus in Hyderabad.
Ashwin W. Joshi, executive director of the Schulich M.B.A. Program in India, says there is strong demand in India for a top-quality M.B.A. program, which the school plans to start offering by 2013.
… Earlier this year, Columbia University in New York opened its fourth global center for research and regional collaboration in Mumbai, even though it does not have plans to open a separate campus in India. “We’ve created a center that’s independent of any joint degree program,” said Kenneth Prewitt, Columbia’s vice president for global centers. However, the university’s experience suggests that an initial step like this one might lead to joint degree programs, he said, adding it was a possibility that the same could happen in India.
Infosys Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kris Gopalakrishnan and Georgia Tech’s provost and vice president for academic affairs Gary Schuster recently signed a memorandum of understanding to partner on potential research and educational opportunities, Infosys said in a statement here.
"Georgia Tech is exploring the possibility of establishing a small, high quality post-graduate research institution in Hyderabad. The proposed Georgia Tech facility will include centres for excellence in information technology and information systems, energy systems, biotechnology and infrastructure studies," it said.
As part of the partnership, Infosys will collaborate on research projects of mutual interest in these areas of technology.
"Since Infosys has a presence both in Atlanta and Hyderabad, there are collaborative opportunities in both locations," the statement said quoting Schuster.
The US-based Georgia Institute of Technology has signed up with the southern state to set up two campuses at an estimated investment of $100 million over the next few years.
… Georgia Tech will set up a campus in Hyderabad and later at Visakhapatnam by 2009-1010, on land purchased from the AP government.
The institute will initially start with a faculty of 10 and 200 doctoral students. There are further plans of setting up a special economic zone that will ensure successful industry-university interaction.
Experiences elsewhere, like Harvard and Wales in the UK suggest that such an interaction acts as a catalyst for research, economic development and technology commercialization.
There are ambitious ramp up plans. Says Vijay Madisetti, executive director of Georgia Tech’s India initiative and professor in its School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, "The campus is expected to grow over 10 years to about 100 faculty and 2,000 students co-located with a university-industry research park. We expect to work with private donors and the US and Indian industry to raise the necessary funding (approximately $100 million)."
Georgia Tech’s India campus will offer degrees recognized in the US, identical to those offered by its US collegiate counterparts. This will make Georgia Tech the first global university to do so in India. The initial set of master’s and doctoral programmes will be in the areas of information technology and hardware systems; biotechnology and healthcare; infrastructure research; and energy systems.
Says Madisetti, "The degree programmes will be taught by tenure-track and tenured Georgia Tech faculty, who are expected to possess the advantage of having study and research time spent on both US and Indian campuses."
While most students are expected to come from India, some would be from the US as well. Just as in the US, most students are likely to support through graduate research assistantships.
Virginia Tech is taking a significant step toward establishing a new campus overseas through the execution of an agreement with a large private sector group. The proposed Virginia Tech, India campus will be located on at least 30 acres in the state of Tamil Nadu in southeast India initially encompassing a 70,000-square-foot campus facility. Master’s and Ph.D. programs are planned for approximately 300 students in engineering and the sciences.
The institution – called Virginia Tech MARG Swarnabhoomi, India – fulfills Virginia Tech’s desire to have a credible presence in India with ample land for future growth and proximity to a major metropolitan city. The proposed campus will be located within a two-hour drive of Chennai (formerly known as Madras), India’s fourth largest city and the capital of Tamil Nadu.
“Learning, discovery and engagement – the three pillars of scholarship at the Blacksburg campus – will be in force at Virginia Tech India,” Dooley said. “Graduates with master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Virginia Tech India will help fulfill the country’s need for quality faculty members to teach in ever-expanding engineering and science colleges in India.”
Virginia Tech will manage the campus and design its academic programs, research facilities, and labs. The university will also promote the idea of education abroad at the new campus and arrange for faculty exchanges. The new campus is expected to become the site of high tech seminars, workshops, and symposia.
… In 2007, a government commission in India urged that the country increase its number of universities from 350 to 1,500 by 2015. In 1999, Virginia Tech became the first U.S. institution to offer a degree program in India – a master’s in information technology offered in conjunction with the S.P. Jain Institute. Harvard, Yale, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology are also pursuing centers in India.
Following youtube video talks about Virginia Tech’s plan.
There is a story about how Cassius Clay changed his name to Mohammed Ali. There is an equally 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 govern 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 programmes. This year, Gupta is ramping this up to 13 programmes. 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 programmes. He plans to use the same change-of-affiliation route, though things have now gotten easier.
… Unfortunately, the proposed legislation to encourage the leading universities from around the world to set up campuses in India is unlikely to achieve the desired objectives. Below are 10 reasons why these top universities are not likely to come in the numbers projected, one possible exception to this scenario, and a suggested alternative approach to reform that could meet the desired objective more quickly.
… The timing of the bill could not have been worse for encouraging the world’s best universities to invest in creating new campuses.
… When Sibal toured the US in the fall of 2009 to recruit the leading private universities, part of his pitch was they should follow the lead of IT and business service multinationals and come to India because it offers a source of high-quality, low-cost talent. The problem with this analogy is that leading universities are not driven by a desire to lower labour costs or increase profits; … Rather, India should appeal to their desire to attract the world’s most able students,
…The bill likewise misunderstands the motives of many of the Indian students now travelling abroad to obtain their degrees. … This ignores the reality that, even with the huge growth in opportunities in the Indian economy, an equal or greater part of students’ motivation for studying abroad is the chance to get a job in that country after graduation.
… With a few notable exceptions — e.g. Wharton’s decision to create a small campus in Silicon Valley, the recent forays into Dubai and Singapore — most of the universities that India is seeking to recruit have resisted the temptation to grow for centuries, …
… As a subset of these universities looks to establish foreign campuses, they are likely to be most attracted to those countries which offer them generous incentives that both reduce upfront costs and the risks associated with global expansion. … India is not proposing any such financial inducements.
… those who opt for a PhD and are able to publish in the top academic journals in their field — the talent pool that would interest leading foreign universities — are in demand in a global labour market that enables them to work anywhere in the world. Attracting them or their peers from other countries to campuses in India would mean paying competitive salaries that would erase India’s cost advantage.
… The combined effect of the above factors is that those institutions which are most likely to be attracted to the Indian market are those that the Indian government least wants: the lower-quality providers that treat higher education as a way to make money, rather than focusing on world-class research and the quality of the learning experience.
...One attractive option for a few of the leading foreign universities might be the endowment of an Indian campus by a wealthy individual (perhaps one of their alumni) and/or corporation. This was the way in which many of India’s most respected private higher education institutions were first created — i.e. the Tata Institutes in different disciplines and The Indian School of Business — and how many of the leading private US universities (Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, University of Chicago, Duke) came into being. A key element that enabled these institutions to become and remain world-class, however, was that the founding individual/family gave the resources with relatively few strings attached, and allowed the university to govern itself, rather than the much more hands-on approach of many of the universities created more recently by Indian industrialists.
… However, an alternative strategy is already working. It promises to expand the quality and quantity of Indian higher education and provide greater benefits to the foreign universities. This strategy encourages the formation of more dual- or joint-degree partnerships between Indian and foreign institutions.
The writer is dean of the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University. He and colleagues are conducting research for a book on “Developing the Skills of the 21st Century Workforce: Comparing the Education and Training Systems of India and China.”
The part in red is close to (but not 100%) what Vedanta University seems to be about. Unfortunately many in Odisha do not understand it.
The underlined part is already happening. One major instances is the partnership between Asian Institute of Public Health in Bhubaneswar and University of Maryland Medical school in Baltimore.
I wish some people of Orissa had not created road block for Vedanta University. If it had made progress as scheduled then it would have put the Bhubaneswar-Puri area in the map of top knowledge centers of India and there would have been a higher chance of some good foreign (especially US) universities thinking about having some operations in Orissa. As it stands now Orissa may lose the window of opportunity it has. Unless Orissa quickly positions itself among the top knowledge centers of India, the top foreign universities will give it a skip and it may again take a long long time for Orissa to catch up.
The Foreign Education Providers Bill, a bill that seeks regulating the entry and operations of Foreign education providers in India, is likely to be placed before the Cabinet this week.
The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry is ready with a draft of the Bill, sources from the Ministry said.
On the Foreign Education Providers Bill, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal argued that the government alone could not finance the educational needs of the country, and said, "There is an allocation of Rs.85,000 crore for education in the 11th Five-Year Plan. But this is not enough."
"The private sector has to come. But we will have to regulate it and there will be a law for it," he said, adding that such regulations would be done by experts and academics and "there would be no political interference at all."
He said 1.6 lakh Indian students go abroad every year and spend millions of dollars besides the heavy cost to the exchequer. Sibal wondered: "A student in India may be denied admission in IIT but he gets it in MIT."
As per the Bill, Foreign education providers would be given the status of deemed universities in India. This will also permit them to grant admission and award degrees, diplomas or certificates.
The Bill also proposes to bring Foreign education providers under the administrative umbrella of the University Grants Commission (UGC), which means that the admission process and fee structure of these institutes will be regulated by the UGC.
Foreign education institutions and their branches in India would have to provide for reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), in keeping with the 93rd Constitutional Amendment Act.
Foreign education institutions are currently not allowed to offer degree courses in India, although a 100% foreign investment is allowed in the sector. However, nearly 150 foreign institutes offer courses with Indian varsities under a twinning arrangement – part of the course in India and the remaining abroad.
Carnegie Mellon, for instance, has for the past eight years offered a master’s program at the Chennai-based Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar School of Advanced Software Engineering. Students fork over $53,000 for the 18-month program — 15% lower than if the coursework were done in the U.S. They also spend the last six months at Carnegie Mellon’s Pittsburgh campus. The London School of Economics offers three-year undergrad degrees in economics, finance and management through the Indian School of Business and Finance (ISBF) in New Delhi, for a total tuition of $20,000, or one-fifth the standard cost. "Our students get a degree from a reputed foreign university at Indian rates, while LSE gets global reach," says ISBF director Jitin Chadha.
In Orissa, there is a beginning of a collaborative program in the recently established Asian Institute of Public Health. The foreign university involved there is the University of Maryland, Baltimore USA. That is the medical school campus of the University of Maryland. (I did my degree from the College Park campus of that University and the famous Orissa Physicist Jogesh Pati was also a faculty at the College Park campus.)
Among the above three collaboration it seems that the first two are more money-spinning type while the third (the one in Orissa) is a more collaborative partnership. The reason I say that is that in the third one joint research projects in Orissa funded by US agencies are involved. In the first two the modus operandi seems to be that the foreign university provide their name and course structure and hire locals to teach a big chunk of the course.