Page - 3

Previous

Why not the Chinese Model?

Why is that China has few foreign universities? China is doing economically much better than India, and still hasn't allowed foreign universities in China, the way Indian government is planning to do.

The world-class Chinese universities (like Peking University) that have improved their international ranking in the last decade are home grown universities. China, has even allowed private Chinese universities to be set up. But, it is still cagey about allowing foreign universities, and the few it has done has been under strict supervision. China itself has become a destination country for international students (see article "Canada and China Discuss Growing Opportunities for Education Ties," The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov 8-2009), and there are about 13,000 students from US studying in China.

China is also trying to reverse brain drain by attracting top talent to its local universities giving them facilities and infrastructure needed for their research. Thus, it has been able to attract Nobel Prize winning physicists, economists, and top-researchers are being attracted to join the Chinese universities (see China: Attract Talent First, and Outstanding Universities Will Follow," The Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct 5-2009). Instead of allowing foreign universities, China decided to infuse billions of dollars into its local universities. Under a project called 985 project, they provided about 125 million USD to each of the ten leading Chinese universities to attract outstanding researchers and build cutting-edge research centers. In 2004 this project was extended to 30 universities. The results of this infusion and futuristic approach is now visible.

Singapore has allowed foreign universities, but allows them after stringent scrutiny (case to case basis). Johns Hopkins, the number one medical school in USA was allowed to operate a biomedical research facility in Singapore. However, the Singapore govt. decided to close it because it did not meet research and educational goals["Johns Hopkins' Singapore center to close," Boston Globe, July 25, 2006]. Can we implement such stringent standards for the foreign universities that we are trying to attract? More important, the home-grown universities in Singapore have proven to be better (e.g. National University of Singapore and Nanyang University) because they were allowed autonomy at par with foreign universities.

One of these successful collaboration model is the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology. Several hundred Professors, post-doctoral scholars, and students from MIT and Singapore sit within the campus of National University of Singapore, and tackled infectious diseases, environmental modeling, and biomedical research [see Singapore: Teaming with Foreign universities for Innovation, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct 9-2009]. However, in a recent volte-face, the Indian government has said that" foreign institutes coming here would be considered on par with private unaided universities" [ "Foreign university education in India to be cheaper," Times of India, September 13, 2009.]. This would mean that universities like Phoenix Online, Sullivan University, Goucher College, Sojourner-Douglass College and many low quality universities will set shop in India to churn money ( and the government will facilitate their setups!!). Even the Yashpal committee reports this apprehension and states" giving an open license to all and sundry carrying a foreign ownership tag to function like universities in India, most of them not even known in their own countries, would only help them earn profit for their parent institutions located outside or accrue profit to the shareholders"( Report of 'The Committee to Advise on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education',pg-40).This apprehension has been bolstered by recent reports that universities like Harvard, Cambridge, George Washington University, have decided against setting up campuses in India (US Colleges say no for setting up campuses in India, Siliconindia.com 13 January 2010).

• «Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• Next »

Dr. Parthasarathi Mohapatra completed his Ph. D. in Business Administration from University of Kentucky in 2005. He has worked as Asst. Professor at Morgan State University. Currently, he is teaching at University of Maryland-University College. He has published in several international journals and presented in international conferences.
E mail: PMohapatra@faculty.umuc.edu