Education in India

Details about the Azim Premji University

I met KS Viswanathan, the head of new initiatves at the Azim Premji Foundation (APF) a couple of days ago in Bangalore and asked him for some details about the Azim Premji University (APU). This is what I learnt from a chat with him.

• The APU will be an institution of excellence in the area of education to develop outstanding education thinkers & leaders, and also serve as a think tank for long-term education change and sustainable development. Akin to the IITs, AIIMS, IIMs and the NLSUI respectively focussed on Science & Technology, Medicine, Management and Law, the APU will in effect be an IIE focussed on Education.
• The APU's vision is to promote, conceptualize and create a paradigm shift through development of outstanding leadership, research, knowledge and ideas for education and allied development sectors.
• The objectives of the APU include
  • Creating Intellectual Capital: through research based theory and outstanding, creative and socially committed leaders and thinkers. Expand the frontiers of knowledge in education and allied disciplines
  • Practice informed by sound theory: Serve as a national education resource center and present an alternative authentic voice for educational and social change
  • Demonstrating models for effective development of teachers and education leaders
• The APU has been set up through a section 25 company and will be autonomous and self-funded with no dependency on funds from the Karnataka Government.
• The Azim Premji University Ordinance 2009, was passed by the Karnataka Government in November 2009.
• The APU is being set up on 50 acres of land in Sarjapur, near Bangalore. The land is being provided by the section 25 company, which is acquiring it directly from the owners.
• It will be a fully residential university.
• The APU will not be aiming to recover all its expenditure from tuition fees. Any budgetary gap between income and expenditure will be bridged by funds provided by Section 25 company being established by Azim Premji.
• The first students will join the university in 2011. The APU will start by offering masters level courses and eventually also run a Ph.D. program.
• Apart from the classroom lectures, the students at the APU will be required to do field work in schools as an integral part of their learning.
• The APU, in addition to developing education professionals and contributing to research will work towards strengthening the educational space by:
  • Increasing the public debate on alternative approaches towards educational excellence
  • Creating possibilities and opportunities to promote innovation and piloting of new ideas/approaches
  • Supporting state and central governments to move towards a quality education revolution
  • Serving as a resource centre for the country in the areas of education and development
  • Emerging as a centre of excellence in education policy and implementation

A reality television show for teachers - a game changer?

Imagine the best school teachers from across the country competing on live TV to teach us Algebra & Geometry, The History of the Indus Valley Civilization , Darwin's theory of Evolution, Each and every Indian Language, The Geography of the Himalayas, Newton's Laws of Motion, The structure of the atom, The story of the Indian Independence Movement, The Working of the Human Digestive System and more, in an absorbing and exciting manner.

Also imagine not just school children watching these shows on TV each night, but doing so along with their parents who will also get the benefit of getting an education from India's best teachers.

How can we do that? Consider a reality TV show for teachers that will unearth teaching talent, enable it to bubble up to the top and showcase it to the national audience. Wouldn't that be a game changer?

How would it work?

• Students and school managements submit the names of their best teachers to the TV Production House, for each class from class I to class XII, for each of the school subjects.
• The TV Production House goes from city to city across the country and conducts an audition of the teachers registered from that city. The teachers are invited to come on a specific day for the audition to the studio and teach any concept/topic of their choice in a 10-15 minute slot before an invited audience comprising of students, parents and judges who are experienced educators. The teachers come prepared and the judges evaluate the teachers on a set of parameters and select the best teacher in each city for each class and each subject.
• The best teachers from each city, as chosen by the judges, are then invited to the second level of the competition where teachers from different cities compete with each other. As before, the competition will cover every subject for each class from class I to class XII and cover everything in the syllabus.
• The reality show will culminate in selecting the best teachers in the country for each subject by the end of the school year and give away the Best Teacher awards along with a substantial monetary prize for the winning teachers.
• The teachers can be asked to teach in English and/or the local languages of each of the states to enable the large audience of school going children across both rural and urban areas to benefit.
• The teachers will be evaluated on their ability to bring about conceptual understanding amongst the viewers and stimulate further interest and excitement in the subject.
• This program can run right through the school academic year to cover all subjects for all classes, with a break during the summer holidays.

The benefits of the reality TV show for teachers

• We can discover India's best teachers and offer them national level recognition
• We will enable every teacher across the country to watch from home and learn from India's best teachers in action and strive to improve and do as well as the best.
• We will be providing students and parents across the country, whether in rural areas or urban areas, with a high quality education right in their homes through exposure to excellent teachers. The students and parents will not only end up learning but will also then expect more from their own school teachers, thereby raising standards overall. We often settle for what we have, only because we haven't seen anything better yet.
• We can make the teaching profession sexy. We can change the perception of the teaching profession by presenting it as exciting and rewarding both emotionally and financially, for good teachers. We will inspire today's students to become tomorrow's teachers and attract talent into the profession.
• The best teachers will be courted by the schools who will compete to recruit them to teach their children. Salary levels will rise for the better teachers.
• A huge amount of superb educational content will be created in the process. All of the content can be put up on the Internet and students will have the ability to watch the programs of their choice in future at any time and learn at their own pace and progress step by step. One can always go back to relearn a concept which may not be clear or something that one may have forgotten. This will become a continuing education opportunity for adults too - they can learn things they didn't learn in school.
• We could do the same thing for college and university level education too.

Funding and operationalising the reality show for teachers

• A huge audience of students and parents are likely to watch these programmes. There will be substantial interest from advertisers for this huge nationwide audience, especially since parents themselves will want their children to watch this program. Which other TV programs do parents want their children to watch every day?
• Given the multitude of reality television shows to discover musical talent with no dearth of advertisers, a reality television show for teachers ought to be viable. I'm sure we can find a way to make it work - our television executives are amongst the best in the business.
• The details of the duration of each teaching segment, the structuring of what to teach in each slot, how to link it to the syllabus, the parameters on which the teachers will be evaluated, selection of the judges etc.. will have to be worked out. When multiple channels pick up on this, there will be constant innovation in these operational aspects to try and do better than the others and the innovations that work with the audience will get picked up by the other channels.

This could potentially revolutionise education in multiple ways, if we can make it work.

Reliance University on the anvil

So reports The Economic Times.

On November 17, when chairman Mukesh Ambani addresses Reliance Industries’ annual general meeting, he is likely to announce the group’s next foray: education.

India’s biggest business house is planning to launch a private university in line with the Ivy League institutions, says a company insider, though the contours are yet to be finalised.

....

According to an IDFC-SSKI report, Indians spend $50 billion annually on private education. The four segments of the education market — plus two, higher, vocational and supplemental — present a $80-billion opportunity by 2012. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16%, says a CLSA Pacific study.

“Mukesh envisions bringing global education to India. He will outline a road map for the business in the AGM speech,” says an official close to RIL who did not wish to be named. An RIL spokesman declined to comment.

....

Ditto Jaiprakash Industries, which is already running engineering institutes, while the London-listed mining giant Vedanta Group has announced a large university near Puri in Orissa. Those in the waitlist include Chennai-based Murugappa group and FMCG company Ruchi Soya.

This had to happen.

Kapil Sibal is away courting the foreign universities to get them to set shop in India. He should be courting Indian investors too and far more aggressively at that. An Indian university can get off the blocks much faster and we may know how to run it better. There's enough and more of money in India and the know how, experience and skills required to set up and run an university can easily be purchased acquired by an Indian entity. What we need most today is the vision, the largeness of outlook and the willingness to invest money. More importantly, to think big over the really long term, well beyond one's lifetime. While Mukesh Ambani and the others to come, have enough and more of the former, we will have to wait and see about the latter.

Listen to a description of Ezra Cornell's unreasonable vision to get a sense of how a self-made millionaire decided to invest his surplus into building the foundation for a university in the mid 19th century. His motto - "I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any field of study" - speaks for his vision, and long-term outlook. The operative word is found. He probably knew his vision may not be achieved in his lifetime, but like all visionaries, he was envisioning the way things ought to be, rather than the way things could be in his day or lifetime. He didn't stop with the vision. He hired the right institution-builders and did enough and more to give it the momentum to keep going on and on. I'd say it's still work in progress.

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata is another example of such a visionary closer to home.   

Mr. Narayana Murthy, Mr. Lakshmi Mittal, Mr. Ambani, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal and others - are you listening? Azim Premji is already off the blocks.

The Azim Premji University, a pioneering initiative in India

The Azim Premji Foundation (APF) is planning to set up the Azim Premji University (APU) a private self-financing university in Karnataka that would undertake teaching, training and R & D in fields like elementary and secondary education,education management and education policy. The APF will provide the statutory endowment fund of Rs. 25 crores. The University, while based in Karnataka will open branches elesewhere in the country. The Azim Premji University Bill is to be introduced in the Karnataka Assembly in the upcoming session, says the The Economic Times.

According to Business Line,

• The University will be self-financed, with no financial grant or assistance from the State Government
  
• Implying that reservations could apply to this university, a note issued during the meeting said that while it would be "open to all classes, castes and gender, the Government of Karnataka can make special provisions".
  
• The Board of Governors will have two Secretaries holding the charge of the education departments, while the rest will be from outside the Government. The board will appoint auditors, lay down policies, review decisions of the university, approve the budget and decide, if necessary, on the winding up of the university. The Government reserves the right to intervene in the event of mismanagement, mal-administration and indiscipline, the note, explaining some of the clauses in the proposed Bill, said.
  
• The Governor of the State will be a visitor of the university. He can seek any information and clarifications and confer degrees and the minister for higher education will be pro-visitor (pro-chancellor).

Business Standard interviewed Dileep Ranjekar, the CEO of the APF, who throws more light on their plans for the APU.

Where do you plan to have the varsity?
If Karnataka finally passes the Bill, and empowers us to start the private university, then the location will be Bangalore.

What was the inspiration behind this concept?
The biggest issue that has actually promoted us to think about the varsity is 'why is that there is no university that is focussed on elementary education in the country'. We observed that we don't have people with professional backgrounds in this country to address issues pertaining to the education sector. Hence, this university will be very similar to the national law school which was launched primarily to create professional lawyers in the country. The university will engage itself in educating professionals who, in turn, will be required for building the capabilities of teachers and managers as educators. Besides, we intend to train people who will make policy decisions based on their knowledge about education.

What courses you plan to offer?
Other than creating trained educational professionals, we plan to offer a post-graduate (MA) programme in education initially. We will also launch several short-term courses which will actually be targeted at in-service development needs of education managers, teacher educators and teachers. The second important activity is research, because research is lacking in education in India. The university will focus sharply on research on several issues to understand how things works; what causes better learning; how do we develop better people and what makes an effective teacher. There are hundreds of such issues. It will also have some experimental labs as part of the university. We also intend to collaborate with a number of states across the country to help them through education resource centres.

Since it will be a self-financing university, will students bear the cost?
Essentially it will be borne by the students. But where the students can't afford, we will have a scholarship programme.

How much funding have you received from Azim Premji for the Foundation so far?
We have earmarked close to Rs 650 crore so far, and this has been entirely funded by Azim Premji. We work with the government and we leverage the funds which we spend. The leverage is very important because the state has really the strength. Because anybody else spending money on the education is going to be very minuscule. The Foundation works with the government which is responsible for schooling. We work with close to about 20,000 schools across the country.

Will the UGC recognise the courses being offered by the university?
The university that comes into existence through a state legislation, will automatically be a recognised university. We don't have to approach the UGC for this.

The APF website lists K.S. Viswanathan as the person in charge of the APU project. Viswanathan had outlined APF's thoughts on improving education in India and its current activities in an interview last January.

VP: What exactly is the Azim Premji foundation doing now in the school scene in Karnataka?

K.S.V: The Azim Premji foundation is focused on Rural Government Schools in the states. We work along with the State Governments in executing some of their priorities. Karnataka has over 45,000 Elementary Schools and 8,000 Education functionaries. However, the learning levels in these schools are very low.

The key objective of the Azim Premji Foundation is to significantly contribute to the Universalisation of Elementary Education in India that facilitates a just, equitable and humane society. After 7 years of operations driving this goal, the foundation has now identified Teacher, Education functionaries as well as Examination reforms as the three pillars as the major programs to pursue.

Teachers tend to teach what gets tested. Teachers are the key transformational agents in the class rooms. Education Functionaries play an important role on how a teacher is actually engaged in a class room. What is needed is a common shared Vision amongst the various stake holders in the Education System in the country. With these goals, the Azim Premji Foundation has been working with the State Government on various initiatives that will supplement their efforts in improving the quality of education in the state.

Our programs in the Karnataka Government is built around Examination reforms, Class room teaching learning process, Teacher training and preparation and Academic support for schools.

We started with Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) in North East Karnataka (the most backward economically and academically) in 2001. This was followed with the Learning Guarantee Program ( LGP) where we ran programs to assess the learning's in the class measured in terms of Competencies acquired in Maths, Language and Science in Class 2 and Class 4. Based on our findings, the Karnataka Government set up a special Organization, Karnataka State Quality Assessment Organization ( KSQAO). KSQAO is now running the LGP program across the state to assess the competency acquired in the Elementary Schools in the state. Currently, we are implementing Child Friendly School initiatives in 330 schools in Surpur block of Yadgir district in NE Karnataka to assess the impact of Community participation in School management, Teacher support system as well as LGP.

We are also running a Management Development Program for 8000 Education functionaries in the state.

VP: What does the Foundation do in other states?

K.S.V: We have extended the concept of Learning Guarantee Program in the few districts in the states of MP, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttaranchal. We are also developing Child centric, self paced, interactive learning system using educational software in 18 languages including 4 tribal languages, to facilitate the unleashing of creativity in children.

In addition, in the states of Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Pondicherry, we are working with the Governments to assess the impact of Technology led initiatives in Class room learning along with, as well as providing Academic and Pedagogic support to Schools . Our programs cover 13 States, 16000 schools and 2.5 Mn children.

VP: India currently has about 35 Million children "out of school" and about 157 Million children in the school. How are you trying to bring a balance between quantity and quality?

K.S.V: We have a unique challenge here. We need more schools to cover larger number of children in the country and at the same time, the quality of education in terms of school infrastructure, class room process as well as Teacher support system. Post the launch of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Universalisation of Elementary Education) program, there has been an improvement in the access to the school for the children in the rural areas. Today, close to 90 % of the children have an access to an elementary school within a distance of 3 Kms from their homes. However, in the process the quality of education has taken a beating. Other programs like Mid day meals, free text books etc have further enhanced the gross enrolment ratio in the schools to around 90%. This is good and welcome news with respect to quantity.

However, quality of education has emerged as the biggest concern in the elementary school system in the country. We have around 200 mn children in the age group of 6-14; out of who only 52% of them reach Class 8 and only 31% reach class 10.Even amongst these children, only 1/3rd of the children are able to read and write their names in their native language.

One of the main reasons for the higher drop out rate as well as low learning in the elementary schools, is the quality of class room process, Curriculum design and Teacher support system in addition to other socio economic factors. The good news is there is an increased awareness on these issues and there is a good focus from all concerned including NGO's like Azim Premji Foundation, Ministry of Education in the Central and in the state government to address these issues . It is a slow but a definite process towards improving the quality of education in the elementary schools.

VP: So what, according to you, are the key needs of elementary education today?

K.S.V: Elementary Education today requires a good Academic Support System, more accountability to all stake holders including the Community for learning outcomes as well as a common shared strategic perspective amongst all stake holders in the system. Making the Teacher's job more exciting, more important as well bringing more recognition to the teachers and the Education functionaries can change the way we look at the Elementary education system in the country.

We need more Action research in the challenges of the Elementary Education. There is also a need to revamp the teacher Education system in the country focused on Elementary schools.

The APF's strategy of addressing the challenge of universalisation of elemenatary education by improving the quality of teachers and the quality of the classroom learning process is an excellent one. Their idea of walking the talk and investing to set up an university focussed on teaching and education management is a welcome step. What is more, the APF's strategy of working closely with the Government, indeed partnering with them, to leverage their strengths and complement them with the APF's own strengths is very well conceived. As Dileep Ranjekar points out, the challenge of educating all our children is a challenge of scale. No private player can match the scale of the Government's efforts. The Government has a crucial role to play. Ranjekar's choice of the word "leverage" is apt in this context. The APF's efforts (backed by its Rs. 650 crore investment - no mean sum in itself, albeit just a drop compared to the Government spending on education) can provide a multiplier effect to the Government's own investments and lead to huge improvements in teaching and learning in Government schools. By working closely with the Government (the Policy Planning Unit in the Dept. of Education in Karnataka is staffed by Government officials as well as staff from the Azim Premji Foundation) and offering the Government substantial control over the running of the proposed APU, the APF is also pre-empting the possibility of any standoffs with future Governments, run by other administrations.

The APF's initiatives in area of Education Management are described on their web site. One aspect of Education Management that doesn't find a mention in their list, but deserves attention is the economics of running schools. The challenge will be to keep fees as low as possible and affordable to the masses, yet find the ways and means to delivery a high quality education in a self-sustaining manner year on year. I hope the APF is working on this too.

The APU is likely to be the first of many more such universities likely to be set up in the coming years. Just as Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata provided the seed investment to set up the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore (still knowns as Tata Institute to Bangloreans) a 100 years ago, I can see a time not before long when we will have more such universities spawned by India's successful and farsighted business leaders. Imagine an Infosys University, a Mittal University, a Mahindra University, a Tata University, a Birla University ,a Reliance University, a HCL University, a TVS University, a Bharti University, a Bajaj University, an ITC University, an ICICI University, a HDFC University, and many more dotting the country over the next decade. Just the thought of the impact they could have, with each of them specialising in different areas, sends a frisson of excitement down the spine. It took almost 13 years, from 1896 when Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata wrote to Lord Reay about the creation of a national university, to 1909 when the Government of India issued the vesting order for the institute, for the Indian Institute of Science to see the light of day. Azim Premji has shown that it will take much less time today from idea to reality.

GEMS to invest US$408 million in UAE schools, expanding capacity by over 20,000

After expanding into the U.K. (11 schools now) and India (6 schools now), they are now on planning to provide more than 20,000 new school places in the UAE, their home base, and foraying into South Africa.

According to a report in The National,

Plans to provide more than 20,000 new school places in the UAE have been announced by the Dubai-based Global Education Management Systems (Gems). The Dh1.5 billion (US$408 million) expansion will focus on Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and other emirates.

Gems, which runs more than 75 schools worldwide, is also looking to significantly increase its international reach. The company’s mission is to become the “leading provider of education and learning management services” globally, said Dino Varkey, senior director for business development at Gems. It is currently developing plans to open schools in South Africa, where the company already has a strong presence, and in other nations.

Gems has 25 schools in the UAE with about 70,000 pupils, which it says equates to a 14 per cent share of the total UAE education market. It is the single largest employer of British and Indian teachers outside the UK and India. “The UAE is still our home business and there is a tremendous amount of growth,” said Mr Varkey.

As it grows, Mr Varkey said Gems plans to move away from owning the school buildings in order to concentrate instead on running the schools. “Because we’re an education company, we’ll try to separate ourselves from the bricks and mortar. We’d like to leave that to others,” he said. “If we can find investors to build the school for us, we can take the land and building on a long-term lease. We have a lot of landlords comfortable with 25- to 50-year leases. It’s a quicker way for us to grow.”

Gems owns and operates 60 per cent of its schools, with 40 per cent owned by others but managed by Gems, a proportion that has more than doubled in two years. Last autumn, Gems branched into the public school sector in the UAE with a subsidiary company, School Improvement Partnership, which runs public-private partnership (PPP) schools in Abu Dhabi. “We do expect to grow our managed school business for high-net-worth individuals who want to go into education. We manage schools for them,” Mr Varkey said.

“We’re very cost-focused,” Mr Varkey said. “A parent paying $15,000 to $20,000 is very specific in what they want, whereas the parent sending [their child] to a mid-market school is not concerned about their child speaking five languages or learning the cello. They want a good education and for their kid to go to a good university. It’s very aspirational.

“Many of the mid-market schools, which include several Indian schools, offer tuition for less than Dh5,000. “Our Own English High School in Dubai charges just Dh7,500 annually. At the other end of the spectrum, the Gems World Academy in Dubai, which will open its doors in September, will charge as much as Dh92,000 a year.”

The GEMS website provides details on its plans in South Africa.

GEMS South Africa was registered in November 2006 as a company in South Africa to promote the interests and activities of GEMS Education.

GEMS South Africa will purchase and build schools in its own name and to manage schools on behalf of clients thereby promoting and incorporating cutting-edge internationally recognised curriculum developments; implanting knowledge and intellectual property into environments most conducive to the enrichment of learning, creativity and personal development; utilising highly experienced educationalists, teachers and school management experts, working collaboratively with international educational organisations while preserving the beliefs, values, traditions and cultures of the schools it owns and manages.

GEMS South Africa is currently undertaking feasibility studies for the development of two new private schools in Namibia and developing the first high volume/low cost school in South Africa.

The latter model is based upon a very successful model operational by GEMS Education in other parts of the world. GEMS South Africa believes that there is a gaping void in key strategic locations in South Africa for such private, not-for-profit schools, which it hopes to develop as a network of highly successful and prestigious schools throughout South Africa to assist in spearheading access to quality, affordable education.

GEMS' plans in India, announced in 2004 of 100 schools in India seem to have taken a bit of a back seat with only 6 schools run by them as of now in India. In an earlier post, I had discussed their strategy in India of not owning the schools, but taking on management contracts - a replication of their UAE strategy.

GEMS is looking to hire Principals for their schools and has advertised for the 2009 school year.

Description: For 49 years GEMS has provided education that enriches the lives of children and their communities. In 2009 GEMS plans to expand the network of GEMS Schools within the UAE, UK, India and Kuwait.

Each school project will differ depending on the country in which it is located and the curriculum offered. Each of these new schools will feature an international curriculum, National Curriculum for England, an American curriculum or the International Baccalaureate Programme.

We are looking for successful, experienced school leaders and ambitious senior leaders to join GEMS in our planned expansion. Roles will focus on the development and opening of schools and on providing the solid foundations from which they will grow over the coming years.

Salary / Pay: Remuneration packages will be aligned with the best leaders of prestigious schools from around the world.

Experience Required: no

This Program is open to American, Australian, Canadian, European, Kiwi and South African Participants.

Application Process Involves:

* In-Person Interview Required
* In-Person Interview when Feasible
* Letters of Reference
* Other
* Phone Interview
* Resume
* Transcript
* Written Application

Section 25 companies to be allowed to invest in higher education in India

According to a Business Standard report,

Private and foreign corporate investment may soon get to flow into Indian higher education with the government considering a move to reform policy that hinders such financing.

Currently, it is not possible for non-profit companies under Article 25 of the Companies Registration Act — like industry associations — to set up an institution and get university status and recognition from the University Grants Commission.

Educational institutions in India can be set up only by trusts, societies and charitable companies, but the profits cannot be taken out of the institution and have to be reinvested. Not only does this restriction hamper expansion, it also encourages promoters to resort to creative accounting to take out profits from the institutions.

Now, under encouragement from an influential political ally from Maharashtra, the United Progressive Alliance government is expected to clarify this clause, sources told Business Standard.

But this report doesn't indicate that for-profit higher education will be allowed - it only seems to indicate that in addition to non-profit trusts or societies, non-profit Section 25 companies will also be allowed to set up higher education institutions, which is not as big a step as what is being considered in the primary education space. A recent report had suggested that for-profit investment in primary education is under consideration.

So, what is a Section 25 company? The Indian Companies Act (1956), provides a definition of a section 25 company.

Section 25 POWER TO DISPENSE WITH "LIMITED" IN NAME OF CHARITABLE OR OTHER COMPANY.

(1) Where it is proved to the satisfaction of the Central Government that an association
(a) is about to be formed as a limited company for promoting commerce, art, science, religion, charity or any other useful object, and
(b) intends to apply its profits, if any, or other income in promoting its objects, and to prohibit the payment of any dividend to its members, the Central Government may, by licence direct, that the association may be registered as a company with limited liability, without the addition to its name of the word "Limited" or the words "Private Limited".

(2) The association may thereupon be registered accordingly; and on registration shall enjoy all the privileges, and (subject to the provisions of this section) be subject to all the obligations, of limited companies.

(3) Where it is proved to the satisfaction of the Central Government - (a) that the objects of a company registered under this Act as a limited company are restricted to those specified in clause (a) of sub-section (1), and (b) that by its constitution the company is required to apply its profits, if any, or other income in promoting its objects and is prohibited from paying any dividend to its members, the Central Government may, by licence, authorise the company by a special resolution to change its name, including or consisting of the omission of the word "Limited" or the words "Private Limited"; and section 23 shall apply to a change of name under this sub-section as it applies to a change of name under section 21.

(4) A firm may be a member of any association or company licensed under this section, but on the dissolution of the firm, its membership of the association or company shall cease.

(5) A licence may be granted by the Central Government under this section on such conditions and subject to such regulations as it thinks fit, and those conditions and regulations shall be binding on the body to which the licence is granted, and where the grant is under sub-section (1), shall, if the Central Government so directs, be inserted in the memorandum, or in the articles, or partly in the one and partly in the other.

(6) It shall not be necessary for a body to which a licence is so granted to use the word "Limited" or the words "Private Limited" as any part of its name and, unless its articles otherwise provide, such body shall, if the Central Government by general or special order so directs and to the extent specified in the directions, be exempt from such of the provisions of this Act as may be specified therein.

(7) The licence may at any time be revoked by the Central Government, and upon revocation,

Not that big a difference from the way non-profit trusts or societies operate in India.

The Business Standard report also goes on to suggest that with the shackles of the Left Parties removed after the recent confidence vote, there will now be movement on the pending Foreign Education Providers (Regulation) Bill to allow foreign universities to operate in India.

There is also renewed hope for a Bill allowing foreign universities and institutions into India to be tabled in Parliament, judging by Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh’s remarks at a conference of state education ministers two days ago.

The Left parties were the principal opponents of the Foreign Education Providers (Regulation) Bill, which was cleared by the Cabinet in 2007 but never introduced in the Lok Sabha although it was listed in the agenda papers.

“We have tried to accommodate some of the concerns. We will try to introduce the Bill in the Lok Sabha session beginning August,” Singh said. The Bill seeks to regulate foreign institutions setting up campuses in India. A contentious issue is whether caste-based reservations would apply to these institutions.

Both Oxford and Stanford Universities have evinced interest in setting up campuses in India but have been hesitant about moving forward until they are clear about the degree of regulation, funding and other issues.

Experts say the moves would provide clarity on funding of higher education institutions by overseas entities. "This will probably provide funding clarity for foreign institutions like charitable organisations or NRIs wanting to set up facilities in India.

Primary education for profit likely to be allowed in India

says The Economic Times. This is a very interesting move by the Government, heralding a huge change in their thinking on funding primary education. If they implement it, there could be a surge of much-needed private investment into primary education to provide a big boost to both supply and quality. The idea of cautious experimentation by asking private players to work in partnership with a government agency is a wise one.

Source: The Economic Times, Chennai Edition, Tuesday, July 22, p1 (couldn't find the link online)

Profit-making in primary education may get okay

Gireesh Chandra Prasad
New Delhi

Come December and corporates may get to venture into preimary education as a profit-making business by partnering with government bodies. According to a proposal on public-private partnership that the government is working on, shareholders of such companies will be eligible for dividends. This is a major break from the present legal restrictions that force companies providing education to plough back profits and utilise the funds for their stated objective of providing education.

Trusts, societies and charitable companies are the most-preferred legal structure for educational institutions and promoters are barred from taking profits out of such institutions. The proposed rules will change this equation with promoters earning reasonable dividends under watchful eyes of the public sector partners they will work with.

THe new norms would allow entrepreneurs to incorporate their ventures as companies and get into education as a profit-making service. However, they will not be eligible for any tax exemption that now extends to societies, trusts and charitable companies.

The finance ministry is expected to begin the process by issuing a request for qualification - a document detailing the parameters for eligible companies. This would give details about how the proposed business model would be structured without violating the existing restriction on repatriation of profits. The ministry would also evolve a model for inviting private investments in primary health centres through public-private partnerships.

The proposed relaxation would be available only for companies getting into partnerships with government entities and not to all. The nature of these projects would be different from the few public-private partnerhsips that have already happened under the rurual health mission and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which are largely in the form of management contracts or for providing specific services.

Career Launcher and SKS Microfinance launch rural school chain in Andhra Pradesh

Career Launcher chain of schools and SKS Microfinance have jointly launched SKS-CL Academy to set up English medium schools in rural Andhra Pradesh. The Academy would set up 10 schools in Nalgonda, Khammam, Rangareddy and Medak districts in the State in the pilot phase to provide primary education till third standard using the national open school syllabus with special emphasis on technology.

While Career Launcher would manage and run the schools, Hyderabad-based SKS Microfinance would take care of marketing and providing education loans for students. "It is the acute lacuna of quality education in rural areas which made us opt for this venture," Mr R. Satyanarayanan, Chairman, Career Launcher Group, said in a release.

according to a report in the Business Line.

R. Satyanarayanan muses on the occasion of the launch of the SKS-CL Academy and says the schooling will cost Rs. 175 per month.

Schools at 175 Rupees a month : It is early days yet. Very early, indeed. No new idea can be counted as success until it grows her own roots on the ground and finds more nurturers than the inventors of the idea. Isn’t that stating the obvious ?

As Shashi Bhushan Kumar, the district collector of Khammam, Andhra Pradesh went about planting a sapling inside our Kusumanchi school, my mind was wandering about the times in the future when this sapling would become a tree. Would it become a tree or struggle to grow in her new home – SKS-CL Academy !! It is early days yet. Very early, indeed.

We had a very healthy congregation of officials, community leaders, villagers, parents and children at the launch of our first rural school on Saturday, July 05, 2008. There are 10 Rural Schools across the districts of Khammam, Nalgonda, Ranga Reddy and Medak that have got underway in AP which hope to provide high quality public education at affordable fees in rural parts of India.

This project employs rural women and men as teachers who are barely educated themselves but have a lot of spunk and enthusiasm. A few of them come from economic backgrounds that are BPL (Below Poverty Line) for sure. The collector of a district is a tall statured person beyond reach for them. It was only after the inauguration that I discovered that our own mentors were very sure that the Collector is unlikely to show up for the event for their school is so small, modest and poor that it is not fit for a collector to visit them.
I am sure that the stature of their school went up in their own eyes during the course of the inaugural function. And they said in no uncertain terms – “ Collector sahib goes to even big functions only for a few minutes. We never thought he would even come to SKS – CL Academy”.

Currently, I view it as an R & D project that calls for a whole lot of innovation in order to make it viable as well as scalable. It is a worthy project that attempts to solve the problem of capacity building for India by blending schooling with employability training in rural parts of the country. Insha Allah, We will succeed.

I'm quite excited about the SKS-CL Academy and look forward to how this initiative shapes up.

Career Launcher also runs

• Indus World Schools (for the K-12 segment) in Hyderabad, Indore, Bhiwani, Mandi and Raipur, and
• Ananda Playschools in Hyderabad, Indore and NOIDA
  

Addendum: A report in Business Standard provides some more details.

According to SKS chief operating officer MR Rao, the schools are being opened to cater to the aspiration of the institution's members. The children will not only be provided with English medium education, but will also have computer classes. SKS members can opt for an education loan of Rs 3,100 to provide quality education to their children. The school will run at a fraction of regular fees and the monthly fee for KG and Class I is Rs 175. The SKS-CL Academy is open to children of non-members as well, Rao said.

"These schools would also be leveraged to provide further enhancements for social development and build an enterprise culture in the village," Nandini Sood, head of CL Rural Academy initiative, pointed out.

Recommendations of the National Seminar on Privatisation and Commercialisation of Higher Education

Here's an executive summary of the recommendations of the National Seminar on Privatization and Commercialization of Higher Education held on May, 2, 2006, as laid on the table in response to a question raised in Parliament.

LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 129 (answered on July 25, 2006)

129. SHRI GURUDAS DAS GUPTA, C.K. CHANDRAPPAN

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:-
(a) whether the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) has submitted its report to the Government on higher education; and
(b) if so, the recommendation made by the NIEPA alongwith the Government’s reaction thereto?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT ( SHRI M.A.A. FATMI )
(a): Yes, Sir, the NIEPA has forwarded a report on a Seminar organized on the 2nd May, 2006 by the Institute on the theme of “ Privatization and Commercialization of Higher Education”.
(b): A summary of recommendations made at the Seminar is at Annexure-I. These recommendations are valuable inputs in formulating policies, as well as appropriate laws, in regard to preventing commercialization.

ANNEXURE-I

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Recommendations

The executive summary of the recommendations of the National Seminar on Privatization and Commercialization of Higher Education held on May, 2, 2006, arising out of the background paper and the deliberations during the seminar, is presented below.

1. The objectives of higher education and basic research for any society, particularly one striving to grow into a knowledge society, are not only to address the knowledge needs of the present time, but also to project the knowledge needs of the future, as far as possible. In fact, a knowledge society needs creative minds in the sciences and the humanities that are not confined within narrow boundaries set by either the current market trends in the private sector or the policy commitments in the government sector, binding though they may be in the short run. It is the responsibility of the state to try to determine the futuristic vision with the help of identified groups of knowledge workers, and influence the course of development in pursuit of that vision with appropriate funding.
2. The State is primarily responsible for ensuring quality education at all levels and in all regions. This would entail strengthening of public institutions as also their quantitative expansion. It is evidently the obligation of the state to find ways and means of raising public resources for higher education as per the recommendations of (a) the CABE Committee Report on financing of Higher & Technical Education and (b) the Tapas Majumdar Committee Report on National Common Minimum Programme's Commitment of 6% GDP to Education.
3. The philanthropic tradition in Indian higher education has been always active and institutions sponsored by it therefore should be promoted. An incentive system in terms of tax concessions, land grants and transparent rules should be laid down so as to attract private participation in higher education. Industry may be encouraged to provide research grants relevant to appropriate technological change. Educational funds for various specific purposes may be floated by seeking contributions from likely private sources and the management of funds should be in the hands of academic/processional bodies. Some of the private higher education institutions with a proven track record of excellence should be identified and promoted.
4. During recent years, private initiative in higher education became almost unavoidable. At the same time, there was increasing pressure in favour of expansion. Since the courts permitted the institutions to charge students in full in certain cases, a large number of new institutions came to be opened. This in turn created a fresh set of problems and all of them have not been taken care of yet. This much is clear by now that the private sector of education has come into existence alongside the governmental sector. One of the problems that need to be taken care of is how the two should co-exist. Secondly, there is the problem of commercialization.
5. Commercialization is manifestating itself in a variety of forms such as the full recovery of the cost of higher education in government and government aided institutions; high fees in self-financing private processional colleges, deemed and private universities; high fees charged in unrecognized private institutions offering foreign degrees in collaboration with foreign universities etc. Commercialization, therefore, needs to be unambiguously defined with a view to containing it.
6. Commercialization of higher education can have adverse implications, both in terms of access and equity. It may even create internal imbalances and distortions in higher education such as excessive importance to the IT - related sector at the cost of the Social Sciences and the Humanities. Commodification of education, research and knowledge will not serve the long range interests of the nation. It could lead to truncated growth and lop sided development of higher education. The applied aspects may acquire importance at the cost of other dimensions, thus neglecting vast pools of traditional knowledge acquired over the centuries. Therefore, commercialization needs to be controlled.
7. A system to regulate commercialization should be put in place by the Central and State governments in coordination with each other. If the Central government so desires, it may lay down constitutional provisions to regulate commercialization. A suitable framework in respect of specific issues can be imposed by legislation, if necessary, and its implementation may be ensured through various regulatory bodies.
8. Foreign universities are promoting the process of privatization and fuelling commercialization. Issues like regulation by the various professional bodies to control fees, fine tune quality and suitable legislation for the entry of foreign universities would have to be immediately attended to.
9. Private non-government institutions may be permitted to generate a fair surplus without indulging in unfair practices and the surplus so generated should be ploughed back for the upgradation of the institution. These institutions should be made to submit a copy of their quarterly accounts to their respective states for audit.
10. Distance education is yet another area where potential of commercialization are quite high because of diverse nature of suppliers offering variegated programmes with little control by the regulatory bodies. Today, the quality of distance education is both unsatisfactory and uneven. This is largely because it is not clear who controls what. Both the UGC and the IGNOU operate in different ways and sometimes at cross purposes with each other. The role of foreign universities also contributes to this phenomenon. It is a matter of urgency therefore that this confusion is removed and responsibilities are allocated in a rational and constructive manner.
11. There if an urgent need to evolve a proper coordination mechanism amongst the various regulatory bodies in order to determine issues such as fees, admission, procedures, the quality of education, future directions etc.
12. Periodic accreditation of all institutions of higher learning should be made mandatory for the purpose of ensuring quality. It is matter of utmost urgency that each new institution is accredited not later than one year of it being started. In case the relevant professional agencies are unable to meet this demand, these bodies may either be strengthened or some partner agencies with established credibility may be identified and entrusted with the responsibility of carrying out accreditation.
13. Whenever an institution is found in default of the norms laid down by the relevant controlling authority, the latter shall have the right to impose a financial penalty for each default. This should apply to all institutions, including those controlled by the government. The amount chargeable should be laid down in advance at the time of laying down the norms. If an institution more than twice commits the default, the institutions should be debarred from running the courses, as the case might be.

Morsels and chunks from FICCI's summit on Private Higher Education - Opportunities and Challenges

FICCI conducted The Higher Education Summit & Exhibition - "Private Higher Education: Opportunities and Challenges" on March 23-24, 2006 in New Delhi. News reports have thrown up quite a few interesting morsels and chunks.

First the morsels.

• From The Financial Express:

  Deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, pointed out the need for a substantial rise in the public expenditure in higher education in India. He felt that the improvement in the higher education system could only be achieved through a balanced partnership between the public and private sector. This, in turn, called for increased private-sector participation along with a significant upgrading in the public education infrastructure, he added. Mr Ahluwalia said the prevailing dysfunctionality of the incentive mechanism in the higher education system was a serious cause for concern.

  Montek Ahluwalia is echoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's views on the need for private investment in higher education.

• From the U21Global press release:
  

  U21Global, a Singapore-based online graduate school of management was granted the associate membership of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). In addition, Mukesh Aghi, CEO, U21Global, will join FICCI's education committee as member and will work with the other members on potential liaisons and tie ups between private higher education institutions and government bodies in India to help meet the rapidly diversifying needs of the growing Indian economy.

  It is interesting to note that foreign educational institutions are now beginning to participate in the lobbying for liberalising private investment in higher education.

• In the run-up to the FICCI's education summit, FICCI conducted a survey called "Developing an understanding of private higher education in India: A Stakeholder Perspective". Some excerpts from The Tribune and Business Standard:
  
  1. The survey was carried out between December 2005 and January 2006 and 4,000 stakeholders including students, parents, faculty, recruiters and promoters across 11 cities countrywide were interviewed.
     
  2. 70% students of private Higher Education Institutes (HEI) have sought government intervention in monitoring and accreditation of such institutes
     
  3. 55% of students interviewed said they felt such institutions charged exorbitant fees and 50 per cent said they selected courses based on employment potential, which, the report said, reflected a "negative impact on the research contributions at the HEIs".
     
  4. Promoters of self-financing private higher education institutes recognised the need for meeting regulatory requirements and getting affiliation and recognition. The prime challenge perceived by them was the uncertainty and the complexity of government regulatory environment, whereas, the least-challenging issue was financing the institute
     
  5. Promoters of such institutes supported a single-window approval system which, they said, would remove prevalant confusion due to multiplicity of regulating agencies such as the UGC, AICTE, MCI etc.

  Both the students and the private institutions are unhappy with the way the State is regulating the private institutions. Far better regulation is needed and the State does not seem to be in a position to provide it - this is going to be a major challenge. FICCI is attempting to address this by proposing self-regulation.
  

• Mr. Saroj Kumar Poddar, President, FICCI, in his address stated that the education sector in India continues to be constrained by strong entry barriers, poor regulatory framework, resource crunch and the inability to cater to the industry demands. To ensure financial sustainability along with equity in higher educational institutions in India, Mr. Poddar, suggested a framework wherein the Government could buy the desired number of seats in the public as well the private institutes, with the rest of the seats sold at prices that would make institutions viable. Mr. Poddar announced that a Higher Education Network (FICCI - HEN) would be launched by FICCI to promote disclosure and accountability through self-regulation. "A number of leading private sector educational institutions have joined FICCI-HEN and we would work with the government to promote good practices by Higher education service providers", said Mr. Poddar (From the FICCI press release)

  FICCI's proposal for the Government to "buy" a desired number of seats in both public as well as private institutes is a radical one, which is likely to face strong resistance from the Government circles. FICCI's idea of self-regulation, led by disclosure norms and accountability, by an industry-driven body, rather than the Government is a very good one. The UGC's draft rules for disclosure norms could provide a good starting point.

Now for the chunks.

• Lawrence H. Summers, President of Harvard University, in his speech at the summit (full transcript available) made some interesting points. He talked about five lessons for India from the American experience in higher education - the importance of competition, flexibility, the authority of ideas, generous philanthropy, and combining research with undergraduate study. He also suggested that there was a major opportunity for India in exporting education. Some excerpts from his speech.
  
  • First, the most important guarantor of both quality and adequate investments in American higher education is competition. All of us in American higher education, particularly at the highest levels, see ourselves as engaged in a brutal competition. If there is a single reason why American education has excelled, it is the brutal competition for students, for faculty, for grant funds, that drives American institutions forward....And we regard it all as good. Not as something to be discouraged, not as something to be managed, but something to be seen and treated as a spur forward....At the federal level in the U.S. we rely primarily on direct federal support for students who can then take that support to the institutions they choose who then compete to attract the best students....We allocate federal financial aid funds in the way that we allocate federal research funds - on the basis of competition and peer review, not on other bases. And these judgments support the competition and drive our excellence."
    
  • American higher education depends on flexibility and the capacity to respond. Unlike what takes place in the primary and secondary level, there is in the U.S. no standard for what constitutes a necessary curriculum. No mandate as to how the academic calendar is to be organized. No set of requirements for what a university must provide.... Success depends on flexibility. That means for example that at Harvard and other great universities there are no fixed salary scales. When an extraordinary professor gets an extraordinary opportunity, we are in a position to change her salary. People of different ages or in different fields, because of conditions in the marketplace, have salaries that can differ by a factor of two or three. Students who want to change their curriculum or forge a major that cuts across two different fields are permitted to do so. The emphasis is on flexibility.
    
  • "Universities must be places based on the authority of ideas, rather than the idea of authority." Summers relates a story of a freshman student (in a seminar on globalisation that Summers taught at Harvard) "who has been here for all of five weeks would tell the guy who had the title 'President' - who had been in charge of this stuff for his country - that he was all wrong and that he had thought about it and that is what he concluded. And that nobody would regard it as a big deal. And that is something that is absolutely central to the success of academic life. There is no question that should be impossible to ask, no subject that should be beyond the scope of inquiry, no issue that should be regarded as finally settled, and no one who should be above or beyond debate. That is a culture, that is an approach, that is a view that is very difficult to maintain in any institution, anywhere. And yet for the most creative ideas to come out, for students to be best trained, it is something that is absolutely essential. And it is something that we fight at Harvard to preserve."
    
  • For all of this to work, there must be generous philanthropy. Our ability to maintain an institution like Harvard, the United States' ability to maintain a system of private higher education, depends on philanthropy. It depends on wealthy individuals who recognize their obligation to an institution that gave them their start, or to giving something back to society, or to promoting a cause that they believe in. It depends on a government's set of policies, ranging from tax deductions to an attitude taken by public officials that celebrates and welcomes, and is unthreatened by, individual generosity. It depends on harnessing the fact that people like to be recognized for their success - by being prepared to name professorships and scholarships and buildings for those who provide generosity.... That is a challenge for would-be philanthropists in this country, where I note the number of those included in Forbes magazine's list of billionaires has increased substantially in recent years, but it is also a broader challenge for institutions to learn to work with philanthropists.
    
  • Successful universities focus on research and on professional education as well as on undergraduate study. Some of the greatest contributions that American universities have made are in the upgrading of the medical profession and in the training of the legal profession. They increasingly, and this is something that I put great emphasis on during my time at Harvard, strengthen the contribution that universities make to professions that are absolutely central to our global system, but that do not involve the largest financial rewards for those who go into them

  • I would suggest that there is a major opportunity here for (exporting) Indian higher education. Potential benefits to the Indian economy of developing it as an export are obvious. But there are more fundamental benefits as well. First, if my own experience is any guide, foreigners that come and spend any time in India will want to come back. They will tell their friends about the beauty of India and the warmth of India's people and many will decide to come back later in life and to visit. Second, foreigners who study here will inevitably make long-lasting connections with their India counterparts. They will forge lifelong relationships that over time will change the attitudes of our nation and other nations towards India.

    I can tell you that no small part of the influence and strength that the United States has in conducting its global policies over the last few years has derived from the thinking about America that has come from those who spent six months or a year or two years in American universities. It is something that any rising super power should consider.

    Third, there are remarkable economic opportunities in this country, and those who come here and study them will see those opportunities and be more likely to exploit them to their benefit, and, I would suggest, to the benefit of the Indian economy. There will be those I am sure who will respond to this suggestion by saying that India's universities are already full and that there is not enough university capacity in India even to serve those in India who need higher education without setting aside spaces for foreigners. There are those who will argue that at a time when many thousands of Indians are traveling to the United States, should we be trying to keep them in India rather than recruit foreign students? My response is a simple one and it is the basis of economics. By attracting tuition dollars and euros, by attracting the money that foreign students will inevitably spend on housing and other living expenses, Indian institutions can potentially develop a new and reliable stream of revenue that will support their domestic expansion and enable them to teach more rather than fewer Indian students. I have no doubt that by welcoming more students from abroad, India can accommodate more students from home.
    

  
   
  
  
• Prof. N. R. Madhava Menon, Director, National Judicial Academy, Bhopal in his speech, provided a legal perspective on private funding of higher education in India and an example of a highly successful private initiative in legal education in India. This private institution was set up by no less an organisation than the Bar Council of India, which is the professional council responsible for regulating legal education in India!

  Prof. Madhava Menon lists the relevant constitutional provisions that which will determine the parameters of a new regulatory regime.
  

  1. Right to Equality (Article 14, 15, 16)
     
  2. Right to Education (Article 21 - A)
     
  3. Cultural and Educational Rights of Minorities (Article 30)
     
  4. Directive Principles of State Policy (Articles 38, 39, 41, 46)
     
  5. Rights to Property (Article 300-A)
     
  6. Entries in List I of Seventh Schedule (Item 65, 66)
     
  7. Entries in List III of Seventh Schedule (Item 25, 26)
  He suggests that there are at least four different sets of regulatory arrangements that are likely to operate in private higher education in future.
  
  1. State imposed regulations: This will largely be in relation to admissions, fees, subsidies, competition, fairness and other public policy issues.
     
  2. Professional/Discipline-induced regulations: This will be in relation to eligibility, curriculum and licensing requirements as determined
     
  3. Regulations arising out of market compulsions: The market will be a powerful regulator in a liberalized regime in future where the consumers stand to benefit in cost and quality if competition is maintained.
     
  4. Self-imposed regulations: In the changed context, service providers will be persuaded to build brands for educational excellence and towards this a series of regulatory steps and self-discipline may have to be cultivated including ethics for organization, administration and delivery of services.
  Prof. Madhava Menon asks why India is not a desired higher education destination for foreign students and says "The politics and economics of higher education coupled with unprincipled interventions from State agencies have eroded the dynamism and competitiveness of governing structures of educational institutions. For several decades curriculum remained unrevised. Teaching was geared more to examinations rather than to acquisition of knowledge. The public discourse on higher education has been dominated to the exclusion of all other aspects by considerations of equity, equality and social justice. The post TMA Pai debate (2002(8) SCC 481) hijacked the educational agenda to the differing approaches of the Judiciary and Parliament on the nature and scope of State authority to regulate admissions through reservations (apparently for less meritorious students identified by state) and to decide the fee structure of private unaided educational institutions."

  He goes on to describe his experience of being associated with the successful experiment of the National Law School of India University at Bangalore, which in his words accommodates access with quality as well as autonomy with accountability.

  University education in law is regulated by multiple agencies including U.G.C., The Bar Council, the Government and the respective university authorities. For a variety of reasons the quality of so-called legal education in the 1970s was found to be utterly poor despite the regulators and the regulations. Several attempts at curriculum reform and stricter controls by the Bar Councils yielded no substantial results in terms of quality, professionalism and competitiveness. It was a state of equality in mediocrity! To redeem the situation the Bar Council of India itself decided to establish a model law school in the private sector or joint sector to act as a pace-setter for legal education reforms. A self-financing, privately managed law University, independent of government control, the first of its kind in the country got established in 1986 in Bangalore under the name of National Law School of India University. Today there are seven such Law Universities in as many states and three more are about to get started in the coming academic year. Everyone concerned with law education applaud the initiative which changed the course of higher education in law, making it internationally competitive and socially relevant attracting the attention of industry, government and the public in the legal sectors.

  I had the good fortune of being associated with this reform movement in higher education for the last 25 years. It has influenced curriculum development even outside the National Law Schools and compelled the private un-aided institutions to improve quality of the education and training they offer. The scheme does honour the State's reservation policy though it would not allow the admissions to be regulated by the State. It assiduously maintains its autonomy in academic and governance matters and some of them are tying up with foreign Universities on their own terms. The experiment is now two decades old and worth looking into when models are being considered for regulating private higher education in the liberalized regime.

  He concludes on a very positive note, but with a caveat on the State's role.
  

  one can confidently say that private higher education has a great future in the Indian Scenario. PHE will bring in competitive merit and force periodical changes in curriculum, pedagogy, examination and governance across the entire educational sector. However, the State will have to negotiate equality and equity through a fair, transparent-participatory regulatory system which will be driven more by consumer interests rather than administrative exigencies and political considerations.

  
  

• Dr. S.Venkateswaran, Vice-Chancellor, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, (BITS) Pilani, Rajasthan in his speech, takes a refreshingly different view of higher education, striking a few notes very similar to Lawrence Summers. He provides a lot of food for thought and pointers to what can be done. The BITS Pilani model needs to be studies to see if it could serve as a model for more such institutions.

  The universities may have to develop an attitude by which students will be treated as clients with continuously changing needs and ambitions. Teachers and scientists may have to work more to satisfy the wishes of the students and society than their own personal and individual urges and impulses. The curriculum would require constant change. The traditional functions of the university namely, creation, preservation and dissemination of knowledge is taken over by others outside the university system as well. Actually, more technologies are created, preserved and propagated by other systems, outside the university. In order to cope with this, university curriculum may have to be guided more by the external impulses rather than internal impulses.

  It will not be possible for the university system to function in isolation. It will be difficult for the higher education system to continue to have the philosophy that education is for the sake of education. One may have to embrace the philosophy that education is for economic advantage. BITS, Pilani has embraced this philosophy since its inception and has done several innovations.

  Dr. Venkateswaran makes some very interesting points about the BITS model, of which a few are excerpted below

  • All admissions are made on an all India basis and are purely based on merit. There is no quota like state quota, management quota, NRI quota, etc.
  • Admissions are done through a computer-based online test spread over two months at various centers across the country with the flexibility for the candidate to have a choice of place of examination as well as time and date of examination. This year about sixty-eight thousand (68000) students have registered for this test for a total number of 1400 seats (800 at Pilani campus and 600 at Goa campus).
  • The overwhelming demand of highly meritorious students seeking admission to the Institute prompted the Institute to open campuses outside Pilani. At present the Institute has a campus is Dubai where the current strength in 950 students. The Institute has opened a campus in Goa where the strength is 1200 and will become 2500 in steady state. The Goa campus is constructed in an area of about 188 acres. The Institute has already invested about 130 crore rupees in this project. The Institute is planning to have a campus in Hyderabad. The government of Andhra Pradesh has already allotted 200 acres land for the campus there and the project cost of around 160 crore rupees is already being planned. There are pending requests from Singapore, Vietnam and Mauritius to open campuses there.