Internationalisation of education for India is a necessity, virtually mandatory, if India is to globalise its population and keep pace in its economic social and technological growth through the development of its biggest asset, its human capital. There is a critical need for our country to tap into the intellectual capital, human resource and networks of the more developed education markets to fuel our future growth. Internationalisation of education will allow India’s manpower to capitalise on skill shortages across the western world that will be there in the foreseeable future given the demographics of the western economies.
Examining our country’s demographics provides an interesting outlook on our future. It’s remarkable how young our population is at a time when the rest of the world and especially the developed world is poised to deal with an ageing population. Studies show that the US, Europe, Japan and China are far exceeding a national average age of about 40 by 2020 while India’s average age is projected to be at 28-29. Half of our population today is under 25 and we have over 200 million people between the ages of 10 to 19, waiting to be enrolled into higher education. India’s population dynamics are hence youthful, rich and capable of driving the transformation not just for India but also the world, thus fuelling progression and growth through capitalising on the opportunities global markets have on offer.
The last 20 years have seen a substantial investment by the private sector in the setting up of institutions of higher learning. However, the lack of regulatory framework has created a situation where currently there are more than 600 foreign-based programmes that are being run in India but are not recognised for Government jobs or post-study in Government institutions.
The need is for a clear quality assessment framework as is the norm in other countries for all providers of higher education, be these stand alone or foreign providers in collaboration with their Indian counterparts as well as universities from overseas. The lack of this aspect has meant that progress has been slow on internationalisation and this is what needs to be managed.
India ranks number three in terms of student numbers of 14.6m per year, next to China and the US. What is clear is that the places available in institutions are unable to keep pace with the demand that currently exists and these numbers are increasing.
India needs to build capacity to educate its growing youth, not feasible with government investment alone. The challenges facing the Indian government to increase both the quantity and quality of its education system, including means and delivery are enormous and every available resource needs to be tapped, no matter where in the world these originate.
This leads to the importance of holistically re-examining our entire policy framework as it relates to education and create a fair, equitable, balanced and growth-oriented policy frame.
The writer is Natasha Chopra, MD, The Chopras