The decision of the cabinet to delay approval of a bill allowing FDI in education, ostensibly because the minister of human resource development was indisposed, is perhaps providential. We wish the minister good health. But we hope that he, in turn, will wish India’s education sector well. The bill, in its current form, is a terrible idea that will give us the worst of all possible worlds. By placing foreign institutions under current draconian restrictions, we will ensure that only inferior institutions invest in India. Any self-respecting foreign institution is unlikely to submit to a regime that controls who it teaches, what it teaches, how it teaches and what it charges. Therefore these institutions are less likely to come to India. The critics of the bill from the Left have a point. There should be a level playing field for Indian and foreign institutions. But the corollary should not be that we subject foreign institutions to the current regulatory regime. The corollary should be that the current regime needs to be transformed drastically.The government should also use this opportunity to rethink the entire structure of regulation in higher education. This regime consists of various interlocking parts, and a half-baked bill regulating foreign institutions here, a half-baked bill allowing private players there, will simply add to the confusions of the current regime. Why should we fear foreign education providers when most of our privileged students are accessing foreign education anyway? By keeping FDI out we are making it more difficult for the less privileged to access good education? The current bill is a product of a controlling bureaucratic mindset that does not fathom either the importance of good education or India’s economic possibilities. It has the imprimatur of small and closed minds. To put it simply, higher education — an employment intensive industry — can be India’s next big comparative advantage. Rather than grudgingly give a few concessions we should be asking: what kind of regime will make India a global hub of higher education? Positioning ourselves to be a powerhouse in higher education is an achievable goal. It makes political, economic, strategic and, certainly, pedagogic sense.
