Foreign varsities to set up campuses as companies, MHRD to change UGC The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has sent proposals to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and the Department of Economic Affairs to permit foreign universities to open their campuses in the country as companies as provided under the Companies Act. As per the powers vested with the Central Government to make rules under the UGC ACT, the ministry is in the process of finalizing the UGC (Established and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Educational Institutions) Rules by which foreign universities can set up campus in India and issue foreign degrees. The Ministry had sought comments and observations of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) on the Rules. Both DIPP and DEA have supported the proposal. Under the proposed Rules, Foreign Educational Institutions (FEIs) can set up campuses in India once the FEIs have been notified as Foreign Education Provider (FEPs) by the UGC. FEI have to fulfill of certain eligibility conditions. Any FEI which intends to set up a campus in India would do so through an association to be registered as a company under section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956. The FEI shall be ranked among the top 400 universities of the world as per the ranking published by Times Higher Education, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) or the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. A senior official of the MHRD close to the development on condition of anonimity said, " yes the proposal has been sent to the department of economic affairs for its approval and UGC rules are being reframed to allow quality foreign universties to open their campuses in India. It is expected to happen this year only and this will certainly imporve the quality of education being imparted in the country."  All FEIs intending to apply under the Rules shall be not-for-profit legal entities, which have been in existence for at least twenty years and accredited by an accrediting agency of that country or in the absence of its accreditation in that country, by an internationally accepted system of accreditation. The FEP will offer programmes of study or courses to be of quality comparable to those offered to students in its main campus. Each FEI before being notified as an FEP would be required to maintain a corpus of not less than Rupees twenty five crores. The Rules also provide for penalties ranging from Rupees fifty lakhs to Rupees one crore for FEP who contravene any provision of these Rules or UGC Act, and the forfeited of corpus fund. The degrees awarded by these FEPs would be treated as foreign degrees only and the same shall be subject to the equivalence accorded by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) as per their system. Last year, the MHRD had asked the University Grants Commission (UGC) to identify possibilities within the existing laws of regulating and allowing the foreign educational institutions.     Nitin S Joshi Librarian MAEER’s MIT School of Management (MITSOM) Kothrud, Pune 411038 M- 09922587907 Direct Line- 020-30273597 www.mitsom.org http://mitsomlibrary.blogspot.com -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.