The University Grants Commission has approved the University of Western Australia as the first foreign university in Tamil Nadu. Based on this, the University of Western Australia, a member of Australia’s “Group of Eight,” is planning and working to establish a university in Velachery, Chennai. This approval by the Tamil Nadu government has faced strong opposition from academics.
In this regard, Government College Teachers Association General Secretary So. Suresh said, ``It is mentioned on the University of Western Australia website that the UGC gave its final approval on October 5. The Tamil Nadu government has also given approval to this university. To study at this university, the first-year tuition fee alone for undergraduate courses such as Data Science is Rs. 14.52 lakh each. For the AI course, it is Rs. 17.93 lakh. For the MBA course, it is Rs. 23.10 lakh,'' the website states.
The provision in the National Education Policy 2020 that says “foreign universities will be allowed to start in India” has now been implemented in Tamil Nadu. In India, after Haryana, Karnataka, and Maharashtra, a foreign university is being established in Tamil Nadu. On September 8, the Tamil Nadu government amended the Tamil Nadu Private Universities Act and created the opportunity for more private universities to be started; it has now also granted permission for a foreign university to be established.
More than half of Tamil Nadu’s 21 universities do not have permanent teachers, even though ordinary poor and modest students pursue higher education there at very low fees. For example, Chennai University should have 515 teachers. But now it has only 180. At Madurai Kamaraj University, there are only 202 teachers for 405 positions. At Bharathidasan University in Trichy, only 119 people are working for 230 teaching positions. In addition, the Tamil Nadu government’s official statistics state that there are 7,198 vacant posts in 188 government arts, science, and education colleges.
For more than a decade, teacher appointments have not been made in government universities and government colleges, leaving the quality of higher education for poor and underprivileged students in question.
The Tamil Nadu government's higher education policy, which rolls out the red carpet to welcome a foreign university to Tamil Nadu without establishing basic infrastructure in government universities and government colleges where 90 percent of Tamil Nadu's poor and ordinary students pursue higher education, and without filling most teaching positions in these institutions for the past ten years, is against social justice.
All those who are committed to Tamil Nadu’s tradition of social justice must raise their voices against foreign universities being established in Tamil Nadu,” he has emphasized in a statement.
To understand more about the seriousness of this issue, when we spoke to higher education advisor and educationist Nedunchezhiyan, he said, “Globally leading and prestigious higher education institutions such as Harvard and Stanford are unlikely to open their branches in India.
Because in their own countries, millions of students are waiting to apply. In contrast, it is only institutions that are struggling with insufficient student enrollment and unable to perform well in their own countries that are setting foot in India.
Moreover, since the infrastructure and educational environment available abroad cannot be found in India, the best professors there will not come here to work or stay.
This will create a situation where classes are conducted by unqualified people. The government does not have clear quality standards to ensure qualified professors. In addition, there is also the problem of providing the vast land area required for such large institutions.
Dubai tried out the model of bringing several foreign universities together and operating them within a single campus. Although the infrastructure was excellent, the plan ended in major failure there because qualified professors could not be found. The foreign educational institutions that come here are not here to improve educational services. Rather, they are focused on making profits by exploiting the Indian education market.
Therefore, if this scheme is implemented in India, these institutions will turn into centers that, in collaboration with private organizations, collect additional fees from students. World-class universities like Stanford create innovations like Google and achieve growth by securing funding from them. But it is unfortunate that the education system here operates with the sole aim of collecting fees.
The government has even failed to elevate Anna University, the state’s premier institution, to IIT (IIT) standards.
Moreover, more than 15 universities in Tamil Nadu are functioning without vice-chancellors. Delaying the appointment of vice-chancellors in universities for more than 120 days after coming to power shows that this government does not give priority to the education sector.
The Tamil Nadu government, which claims to oppose the National Education Policy (NEP), allowing only the entry of foreign universities, which is also part of the same policy, is a major contradiction. Under the National Education Policy (NEP), undergraduate degree programs (such as B.A., B.Sc., B.Com) have been changed to 4 years in most states.
However, Tamil Nadu follows a 3-year undergraduate degree system. As a result, students from Tamil Nadu face barriers to admission in central higher education institutions like the IITs or in certain specialized higher education programs. Students encounter numerous problems, including these discrepancies and the impact on their future. Welcoming foreign universities without resolving these fundamental issues would not be fair in any way.
Today, education itself has become the country’s biggest corruption zone. For example, the fee in private medical colleges, which was 28 lakh rupees last year, has been raised in one stroke to 35 lakh rupees this year. The education department is so weak that it allows fees to rise by as much as 7 lakh rupees in a single year without any control. When even domestic institutions do not have proper rules and regulations or restrictions, opening the door to foreign institutions is not justified in any way.
Since the formal regulations, fee controls, or quality parameters for permitting foreign universities have not been clearly defined, this plan will not be a successful proposal.
The current Indian education system stops at mere teaching and has not evolved into a research-oriented one that finds solutions to social problems (Teaching-cum-Research). Students studying agriculture or economics should be educated in a way that enables them to research and find solutions to practical social issues. The three key pillars of the education system—access (Access), quality (Quality), and equity (Equity)—must be protected. Therefore, the government can focus on such practical issues.
During Kamaraj’s rule, education was independent and pure. But today, politics and cinema have become mixed with education. Because the same importance is not given to education as is given to entertainment and politics, Tamil Nadu’s educational institutions are losing their prestige and quality.
Therefore, strict regulations must be framed for the education sector, which determines the country’s future. It is wrong to make such decisions without consulting educators. Before opening the door to foreigners, the immediate need is for the government to appoint vice-chancellors at once and take steps to improve the quality of local universities," he said.
Will the government address the problems in the higher education sector?