“It is also not practical to invite foreign universities here when our own universities are in bad shape.” This quote has been ascribed to a minister of UPA-II. He is not the HRD Minister. But when has that prevented our ministers from indulging in one-upmanship and shooting their mouths off to the media, without bringing their concerns before Cabinet?

The comment is in reaction to HRD Minister Kapil Sibal’s 100-day plan for reforming education, including allowing foreign universities entry. I will leave the quoted minister unnamed, since ministers are prone to (a)deny they ever said it, (b)state they have been misquoted, (c)claim they have been quoted out of context.

However, this minister claims credit for reforms initiated by the Congress government in 1991. Note that those were days when industry was liberalized, licensing ended and domestic industry was exposed to foreign competition. Our own industry was in bad shape then. Barring protectionist industry (the Bombay Club), no one claimed it wasn’t practical to invite foreign competition. Instead, it was argued that infant industry protection meant infants never became adults. The only way to ensure maturity and improve industry’s shape, so to speak, was to expose it to competition.

Without survival of the fittest, survival of the fattest would continue. Indian industry has now become much more competitive, by any criteria. So why can’t the competition-driving-efficiency hypothesis drive education too?

There is a minor matter of ministers lacking courage of conviction and running with the hares and hunting with the hounds, depending on which way the wind is blowing. But that apart, it is practical for Indian students to head off to foreign shores for quality education (and sometimes get beaten up there). It is practical for Indian educational institutions to set up shop in the Middle East and East Asia. It is practical for relatively low-quality foreign universities to function in India, using a grey area of law. But it is not practical to allow good-quality foreign universities in India. It is also practical for human capital flight to take place overseas from good faculty.

... contd.