US schools are coming to a campus near you

CHENNAI: It was an unusual university entrance interview. Late one recent steamy evening in Chennai, Vijay Muddana sat in a mercilessly air-conditioned room, leaning forward in his chair and talking to the wall. There, projected on a screen via videoconferencing equipment, were administrators from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

The exchange was one of the many ways in which American universities, eager to expand to markets abroad, are training their sights on India. The law is still vague on how foreign educational institutions can operate. But that may soon change.

The Bush administration’s envoy for public diplomacy, Karen P Hughes, is visiting India this week with a half-dozen American university presidents to promote Brand America. The United States wants an easing of rules under a draft law on foreign investment in Indian education, which is to be introduced in Parliament in April.

If the law is approved, foreign institutions would be exempt from strict rules that currently apply to all government-accredited universities in India on fees, staff salaries, and curricula. The government has proposed setting up an expert committee to review the standards of foreign universities that want to establish independent campuses.

Among Indians between18 and 24, only 7 per cent enter a university, according to the National Knowledge Commission. To roughly double that percentage — bringing it up to par with the rest of Asia — the commission recommends the creation of 1,500 colleges and universities over the next several years. At the moment, however, instead of setting up satellite campuses, as was done in China, Singapore or Qatar, most American institutions are joining hands with Indian institutions.

Columbia Business School, for instance, started a student exchange programme earlier this year with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. The institutions teamed up to write case materials devised to teach American students about doing business in India.

Champlain College, based in Vermont — a northeastern American state — runs a satellite campus in Mumbai. It offers degrees in business, hospitality management, and software engineering. The government does not recognise Champlain’s degrees. But a study has found that students did not consider unaccredited college degrees to be a hindrance to joining private sector.