India's growing education market excites US universities

India's growing education market excites US universities

WASHINGTON: American universities are excited by prospects of expanding their presence in India's growing education market but some prestigious

Ivy league institutions like Yale University don't expect to open a campus in the country any time soon.

Vivek Wadhwa, an Indian American entrepreneur turned academic, associated with Duke, Harvard and Berkeley, all with strong interest in India, described the Indian cabinet's approval of a bill allowing foreign varsities to set up campuses in India as a "win-win".

The legislation expected to be introduced in parliament next month for a vote would potentially open a huge market to international educational institutions. "For them, this provides an ability to expand their programmes and make their students and faculty more globally aware," Wadhwa said.

"They will probably end up doing some of their research in India also for the same reasons that major corporations are doing R&D in India - it is much cheaper and brings them closer to growth markets."

But Wadhwa wished "the government hadn't put unnecessary restrictions into the bill, like the requirement that universities not repatriate profits and requiring an $11million minimum investment.

"Tens of billions are already flowing out of the country. So what if some universities make a profit?
This is win-win," he quipped.

Yale University, which is currently in discussions with the Ministry of Human Resource Development to advise the government on its plans to set up 14 new national universities in the next few years, however, had a different take.

"We have no intention or plan to open a campus in India at present," said George Joseph, assistant secretary for international affairs at Yale University. "Our focus is on building research collaborations, partnerships, as well as student exchanges."


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