MUMBAI: With no Indian university figuring among the top 100 globally, industrialist G P Hinduja has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to alter government policy to allow foreign educational institutions to collaborate with domestic varsities to provide world-class education in the country.
“We have been boasting about the Nalanda and Takshshila universities. But, today, we don’t have any that will even come in the list of top 100 universities in the world. To improve the quality of education we need to collaborate with foreign institutions,” he said.
“Modi really wants to change the face of the country,” Hinduja, co-chairman of the Hinduja group, told reporters on the sidelines of an event here last evening.
He said necessary policy changes should be made by the Modi government to enable foreign institutions to function here directly or in collaboration with domestic universities.
The change Modi wants can be ushered in through better education and health-care facilities, he added.
Hinduja said he has written to Union HRD minister Smriti Irani requesting her to seek private sector support for upgrading Indian universities to world class institutions.
“The Hinduja group has been approached by several prestigious educational institutions for working together here. We are willing to do so, but a policy framework is needed for foreign institutions to operate,” he said in his letter to Irani.
Emphasizing on the need for changes in the policy framework, he said the legislation by the previous UPA government to allow foreign universities to operate out of the country was not even discussed in Parliament before it lapsed.
The government, he said, must explore all options to create an enabling environment for participation of foreign institutions in the Indian education system.
“There is interest from foreign universities who sense the demand and the potential,” he said.
Hinduja also said there was an equal interest from reputed business houses to contribute to the higher education system through collaborations.
“There is a felt need to bring in a legislation to allow credible and high ranked foreign universities and institutions to bring in their academic and research culture into our education system,” he said.–PTI
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