New Delhi:
The first ever high-level Indo-US education summit takes place today in Washington. Co-chaired by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, over 300 higher education leaders, government and private sector representatives will participate in the daylong event.
Mr Sibal is in the US making a strong case for US institutions of higher education to partner with those in India saying that tie-ups would yield high economic returns.
"When we are growing at 8 % and the western world is going through an economic downturn, the opportunities lie in India because it is an emerging economy and naturally the business community would like to tap this opportunity. When the business community comes in the solutions they offer must be India centric. That requires innovation. Americans are very good at innovation. When they come into the country, partner with us in solving some of our own problems what happens is that they enrich themselves through knowledge and in the process they make money. They also do public good because it is a cooperative partnership and this is good for everybody," Kapil Sibal told NDTV.
Over a 100, 000 Indian students study in the United States and that number is only expected to increase in the next several years.
India faces a severe shortage of Universities and colleges, which throws up opportunity for American universities. At a time when state budgets are shrinking dramatically and even prominent private universities aren't as wealthy as they once were, admitting foreign students who pay full fees makes sound financial sense.
Still there are many hurdles to overcome. Parliament still has to pass legislation to allow in foreign universities.
American universities are wary of caps on faculty salaries and fees and universities like Tri- Valley have yet again exposed the dark underbelly of the market in India for an American education.