The long-pending Foreign Education Providers Bill proposed to facilitate entry of foreign institutes in India is set to undergo changes after the PMO’s intervention. The HRD Ministry has started circulating a new version of the Bill for inter-ministerial

consultations a second time, to address some of the objections raised by the PMO.

The revised version of the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations, Maintenance of Quality and Prevention of Commercialisation) Bill, 2009 proposes to conform to the reform-centric recommendations made by

the National Knowledge Commission and the Prof Yashpal led committee’s recommendations and to allow provisions for rules framed by a successor body to the UGC to govern these institutes.

The modified version of the Bill terms foreign institutes as ‘Foreign Education Providers’ instead of ‘deemed to be universities’ and clarifies that these institutes will be empowered to grant degrees, diplomas and equivalent awards but not so on “distance mode”. A new section has been added to the Bill to permit foreign educational institutions to offer ‘Certificate Courses’ without having to register under the Act. The Kapil Sibal led dispensation at the HRD Ministry has also added a new provison in the Bill saying that the Centre can deny operation of such an institute “in the interest of national security”.

This newspaper had first reported how the legislation revived under Sibal by the HRD Ministry did not cut much ice with the PMO. While the legislation was lined up on the cabinet agenda last month, the PMO sent it back to the ministry saying the legislation was not in keeping with the new reform-centric higher education sector envisaged keeping in mind the Prof Yashpal Committee’s recommendations and failed to factor in the National Council for Higher Education, the proposed single independent higher education authority.