Foreign universities will create talent pool, says Sibal

BANGALORE - Defending the proposed entry of foreign universities in India, union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Monday asserted that they would help create a talent pool for the country.

“We have a foolproof plan for the entry of foreign universities. Any foreign varsity entering India will have to create a $12-million corpus fund and profits will not be allowed to be expatriated to shareholders,” Kapil told reporters here on the margins of a function.

Allaying concerns over the Foreign Educational Institutions (regulation of entry and operation, maintenance of quality and prevention of commercialisation) Bill, Sibal said they would have to re-invest 75 percent of profit in the school or university and the rest would become a part of the corpus fund.

“The bill is in line with the 2020 vision of top management guru C.K. Prahalad to create an educated talent pool with access to higher education for about 200 million people,” Sibal said.

Though foreign universities will have the right to form their own fee structure and admission rules, they will have to function within the purview of the Indian regulatory system, as envisaged in the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009.

“If we realise this vision through universalisation of education, attaining double digit growth and economic prosperity will be possible,” Sibal pointed out.

Sibal was in this tech hub to deliver the Vithal Chandavarkar memorial lecture at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

Chandavarkar was an industrialist, who served as Mayor of Bombay (now Mumbai) and also as vice-chancellor of the University of Mumbai.