US universities see India’s large English-speaking population, affluent middle class and the value given to higher education as attractive opportunities for their schools.
Taking a cue from human resource development minister Kapil Sibal, nearly all major US universities now have an eye on India. With the cabinet approving a proposal on Monday to allow foreign universities to set up campuses in India, they hope the parliament will take up a bill to open up India’s heavily regulated educational system to foreign players.
“We’re trying to increase our engagement in India,” Richard Levin, president of Yale University, said. “It’s a country that is emerging as one of the leading powers in the world, and we want to build a broad and deep set of connections with it.”
US universities see India’s large English-speaking population, affluent middle class and the value given to higher education as attractive opportunities for their schools.
“Clearly, India has been one of the most dynamic societies on the planet, and therefore it is a place that we feel we need to know more about. We have things to contribute. But we start primarily from a position that we need to learn more about the country,” Columbia University president Lee Bollinger told journalists at a press conference last week to announce the launch of the Columbia Global Center for South Asia in Mumbai.
Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation will launch Studio-X Mumbai in conjunction with the university’s opening of the global centre. Studio-X Mumbai will occupy a loft-like space in a heritage building near Victoria Terminus and will join the network of Columbia architecture labs in Beijing, Amman, Rio de Janeiro and Moscow.
NYU-Poly is looking to partner with Indian universities like the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. “There is a potential to team up,” Jerry Hultin, president of NYU-Poly, told DNA. Hultin, who has been at the front of creating New York University’s campus in Abu Dhabi, indicated that NYU had a wait-and-watch approach to India.
“New York University’s priority is building this new campus in Abu Dhabi and 2010 is the first class. It will take a few years to complete. I think then we will sort of watch how things develop in India and see what will be the next best step. Not right away,” said Hultin.
The New York-based Institute of International Education (IIE), with which some 800 US colleges are affiliated, says it sees India as a country of the future.
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