Foreign universities make huge income collaborating with Indian Institutions

Indian colleges which collaborate with foreign institutions charge high fees. Students cough up huge amounts as fees to get admitted. They obtain fancy overseas degree but what about real quality education? What is the academic worth of these degrees and diplomas in overseas employment market?  What is the real interest of the foreign universities behind collaboration?  Let’s look at the income that the foreign universities make with Indian tie-ups 

Lancaster University, in partnership with G.D. Goenka World Institute charges £700 ( Rs 49,000 at conversion rate of Rs 70)  per annum per student for its 3-year undergraduate programmes. The PG programmes too are validated on £700 fee per year per student.  Oxford Brookes (tie-up with IIMT) UG degrees are awarded to a student on a payment of £500. According to June 2009 Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA)  audit report, a UK-government recognized agency that reviews and audits the overseas collaborations, states:  “The number of students at IIMT registered on the Oxford Brookes programme in 2008 was 358”. It shows a total of £179,000 ( Rs 1,25,30000) remitted to UK in just one year. Similarly, the June 2009 QAA report of University Bradford (in partnership with IILM) mentions,” In June 2005-06 academic year the threshold was 180 enrolments….. the maximum number of new enrolments is negotiated annually..” Going by 2005-06 estimates, the University of Bradford dispatched £67500 ( or  Rs 47,25000) to its home campus that year.

The UK degree is seen as a stamp, an insignia which is tantamount to ‘the last word in quality’ in certain quarters in India. Feeding on this sentiment, the UK institutions are swamping Indian shores. Where else will they get English speaking demographic which is so smitten by the UK lifestyle and not-to question-the- degree quality youngsters.

Let’s look at the other statistics. Leeds Metropolitan University, operating in UK, could generate an income of only £2,56,8000 via tuition fees from Home and EC domicile students (Full-time PG) in the year 2008-09  On the contrary, it scooped a whopping £ 7,79,7000 from Overseas (non-EC) domicile students’ tuition fees. University of Wales received Funding Council Grants totaling  £ 581,773 in 2009, lower than what it received in 2008; £ 696,907.However, it’s validating services fee contributed a staggering  £703,8928. A sum decent enough to compensate for the ‘gap’ in Grant Money. Just as has been in the case of University of Wales, a whole lot of other UK institutions too had to settle for constricted Grants in 2009. In the meantime, the University pumped up its validation fee, which in 2008, stood at £5,440,765. For the uninitiated, the University of Wales (in collaboration with TASMAC) is the largest degree-awarding body in UK

AICTE, the statutory body, introduced regulations in 2005, under which foreign institutions imparting technical education are required to obtain approval from AICTE. The remit of AICTE includes engineering and technology, business and management, hotel and catering management, pharmacy, architecture and applied arts and crafts.  There is currently no legal framework to recognize qualifications awarded by foreign institutions on the basis of programmes delivered entirely in India. Yet, UK collaborative- linkups are taking place freely.