Indian students desiring foreign education can fulfil their dreams right from the comfort of their homes, courtesy online courses launched in the Capital on Tuesday by Laureate International Universities - a network of higher education institutes.
Master and professional level courses in management, health and human services, public policy and other streams are available from Laureate's three flagship varsities - Liverpool (Britain), Walden (US) and Glion (Switzerland).
According to Norman Bloomberg, chief operating officer (global products and services), Laureate, the courses being offered are designed specifically for working professionals.
"After applying online, the aspirant would be able to chat with our advisors who would help them to choose the right programme. Our programmes are aimed at working adults with work experience," Bloomberg informed.
Enrolled students would be taught through videos and weekly assignments.
"We have partnered with the Pearl Academy of Fashion and are also in talks with some corporates," he added.

The Kerala State Higher Education Council (KSHEC) Vice-Chairman T.P. Sreenivasan has said that any debate on reforms in higher education sector in the country should take into account the rapid changes occurring in the world.
Inaugurating the 'National seminar on higher education in India: challenges and prospects' organised by the Kannur University Union on the university campus at Mangattuparamba here on Tuesday, Mr. Sreenivasan, former diplomat, said that education should cater to the requirements of future. The whole mammoth endeavour of educating the millions in the country would elicit wonder as to how it had worked so far and how it would work in future, he said. The academic community, perhaps, was the only segment in society that resists any changes, he said adding that when the change was imposed it was done half-heatedly. Unless the change was accepted, the academic community could not equip students for future, he added.
Stressing the importance of employability as a major purpose of education, Mr. Sreenivasan said that unless the educational institution was able to provide its students knowledge and skills that would help them earn a living, education would fail to serve its purpose. He also said that there should be strong linkages between industries and educational institutions. In many countries, industries were part of the education process, he said adding that there is no ideology in educational thoughts.
Referring to debates about autonomy of universities, the KSHEC Vice-Chairman said that autonomy should be linked with responsibility.
Touching on the controversial issue of campus politics, he said that campus politics was acceptable if it would enable students to be future leaders of the country. However, politicisation of universities and colleges was a bane.
He also said that education in the country had benefited immensely from private educational institutions. He also said that ideology had to be set aside while debating participation of foreign universities in the country. Not a single Indian Institute of Technology had been included in the list of 200 best universities in the world, he said.
"We have to think hard how far our educational institutions can be built on external models," he asked,
Mr. Sreenivasan said that the KSHEC was mulling the idea of creating the State Assessment and Accreditation Council which would enable the council to pick and choose better institutions to be given incentives.
Economist Prabhat Patnaik in his keynote address at the seminar struck a different note saying that the purpose of education was to create organic intellectuals to serve the social order. If the purpose was to create students employable in the market, ordering of institutions was bound to be the outcome. The country did not want clones of foreign institution, he pointed out. Education in different societies could not be homogenous, he said adding that there was an effort to homogenise education to make deviant universities conform, he observed.
Admitting that there was remarkable deterioration of quality in higher education in the country despite increase in the number of educational institutions, Dr. Patnaik said that the concept of employability makes education a commodity. Stating that a university is a place for intellectual engagement, he said commoditisaton of education requires standardisation. Observing that this was now demanded by international mobile capital, he said that India was making a major departure by having institutions set up by capitalists. Privatisation of education produces commodities and not people who think, he pointed out. The objective of higher education must be to inculcate the values in our Constitution, he added.
Stating that the higher education in the country was facing serious crisis, Dr. Patnaik said that the crisis was associated with commoditisation of education which had become official policy. He also called for an urban employment guarantee programme that would ensure minimal income for the unemployed educated youth. He also questioned the tendency to debunk students and teachers from politics.

New Delhi: The UPA Government is trying hard to get the new Bills for Higher Education in India approved in this winter session of Parliament. Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) is leaving no stone unturned to convince the UPA allies and Party MPS on these Bills.
As per the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on HRD, the Union Cabinet has approved the amendments to the 'Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical Educational Institutions, Medical Educational Institutions and Universities Bill, 2010'.
While The Educational Tribunals Bill, 2010 was postponed in the Rajya Sabha over a year ago, another controversy regarding the New Bills for Higher Education proposed by MHRD has evoked.
Legal luminaries have pointed out that the move of the UPA Government to control and regulate the Universities is "Unconstitutional". They informed that according to the exclusion contained in Entry 44 of List I, Parliament does not have legislative competence to legislate in issues of universities.
The State legislatures have a right to alone forming the regulatory regime for universities in their respective state.
Former Chief Justices of India analyzed the Bills named as 'The Prohibition of Unfair Practices in technical educational institutions, medical educational institution and Universities Bill, 2010', 'The National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill, 2010', 'The Educational Tribunals Bill, 2010', and 'Higher Education and Research Bill 2010' on the Constitutional Anvil.
Astonishingly, provisions contained in these above mentioned Bills, proposed by UPA to include universities oppose to the provisions of the Constitution and the Federal Structure of the country.
Justice Madan Mohan Punchhi, former Chief Justice of India & former Chairman, Commission on Centre State Relations, Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India commented on 'The Educational Tribunals Bill, 2010' that the State Legislatures can only draft an enactment for establishment of Educational Tribunals for final judgment of universities matters.
Therefore, the clauses mentioned in the new bill to include universities violates the constitution and the concept of separation of powers. The bill lacks legislative competency and if it is enacted as a law, it will be beyond the powers of constitution.
Justice Punchhi expressed the same opinion in case of other bills as well.
Justice A S Anand, former Chief Justice of India& former Chairperson, NHRC, said that the Parliament does not have power to legislate in matters of universities to establish any regulatory regime according to the exclusion mentioned in Entry 44 of List I and the State Legislatures alone have the power to constitute the regulatory regime regarding universities in the respective states.
Thus, the proposed Bill if enacted by the parliament would lack legislative competence and in that case would be ultra-vires the Constitution.
Justice K N Singh, former Chief Justice of India and former Chairman Law Commission of India analyzed 'The National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill, 2010' and expressed that the legislative power under Entry 25 of List III cannot override provisions contained in Entry 32 of List II and Entry 44 of List I which do not provide power to the Parliament to enact law to control or regulate Universities.
Therefore, the New Educational Bill is Unconstitutional and the proposed law will be highly controversial to the extent that court may strike it down.
According to R.C.Lahoti, former Chief Justice of India, the creation of tribunals by the Centre has dual impact. Firstly, The Centre envisages taking over the administration of universities including the ones which are enacted by State Legislature. Secondly, the final judgment of any disputes regarding universities will be transferred in hands of the Tribunals set up the Centre.
Overall, several clauses contained in the New Education Bill are against constitutional Provisions as stated time to time by the Supreme Court of India.
Failing to get through the test of constitutional validity and encroaching upon the State's right, these bills might be the next big issue to be raised by the opposition in parliament.

By Alya Mishra. For many years Indian students, the world's largest group of overseas students after the Chinese, rarely looked beyond Britain, the US and Australia for higher education. But changes in visa rules, fraudulent institutions that prey on unsuspecting foreign students and lack of opportunities to work after graduation in the UK and US have prompted students to seek newer, more welcoming destinations including Canada, Europe and Singapore.
"New Zealand attracted a large number of Indian students this year. Countries such as Canada will become increasingly popular. Australia, with its new visa norms, is all set to make a comeback," said Ravi Lochan Singh, managing director of the educational consultancy Global Reach.
He was referring to a 77% drop in the number of Indian students in Australia in 2010 compared to the year before.
"Although European destinations will not be a threat [to traditional destinations] they are innovating to become more international," added Singh.
Indian students spend Rs5.9 billion (US$113.5 million) annually on studying abroad, more than twice the amount allotted by the country's national budget to higher education.
A big chunk of this money traditionally goes to the US, which hosts more than 100,000 Indian students, the UK and Australia. The drop-off of Indian students in the UK is marked, almost 10% down on previous years, and in the US the decline compared to 2009 is around 32%.
Visa changes
Changes in visa policies are a key factor in the search for new destinations. This year the UK scrapped the two-year post-study leave to remain in the UK for new non-EU students. Foreign graduates can stay only if they have highly paid skilled job offers.
"The UK played around with their post-study work regulations and all indications are that September [2011] and Spring [January 2012] intakes will show a huge decline in student numbers from India," said Singh.
The post-study work visa has been popular among self-financing Indian students who try to recover the cost of their degree by working after their course is over. Few Indian students get help with bursaries or scholarships from the Indian or the British governments.
By contrast, Australia announced new student visa regulations from November this year after a huge slump in the number of Indian students following racist attacks on Indians in 2009. A government clampdown on dubious institutions and visa changes also deterred prospective students.
Under its new regulation, international students who graduate with a bachelor or masters degree after studying for at least two years in Australia will be able to work in the country for two years after graduation. Those with research masters degrees can remain for three years' post-study work, with four years for PhD students.
"The new regulation has the potential of attracting Indian students back to Australian universities. It will also act as an alternative to British universities when cost of education remains the same," said Harmeet Pental, regional director of South Asia for IDP Education.
Continental shift
While the UK tightens its visa rules, countries like Germany are poised to fill the gap.
"English-speaking countries will continue to remain popular with Indian students. But unless student visa norms become more flexible and the economic situation improves in countries like the US and UK, students will look for greener pastures," said Singh.
After completing a degree in Germany, a student can stay for up to a year to look for a job. "The residence permit issued for studying can be converted into a residence permit for employment and can be issued for up to five years," said Christiane Schlottmann, director of the German Academic Exchange Service's (DAAD) regional office in New Delhi.
With tuition fee subsidies in Germany, and government stipends for around one in five Indian students, the cost is much lower than for the US or UK.
The European Union's Erasmus Mundus programme, launched in 2004, has helped 2,000 Indian students study in institutions in Europe including in Germany, France and Spain.
"Language might be a barrier for several students coming to Europe. But staying in a country to study is the best way to pick up a new language," Sakshi Talwar, an Erasmus Mundus scholar, pointed out.
US versus Canada
US universities may still host the largest number of Indian students globally. But the US reputation has taken a beating after high-profile incidents of fraudulent universities left Indian students stranded. In January 2011, Tri Valley University in California was charged with immigration fraud by the US authorities and closed down, leaving hundreds of Indian students facing deportation. In July, US authorities raided the University of North Virginia after alleged visa fraud.
Although there are also reports of dubious private diploma-granting colleges in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, there is more transparency about bogus universities than in the US where "there is no single accrediting body", said Singh of Global Reach. The US is still popular with Indian students. "But there will be a decrease in numbers because not everybody will get admission in Ivy League colleges. The second and third tier colleges in the US may be better than most of ours, but Indian employers are sceptical about lesser-known institutions, especially after the cases of fraudulent institutions came to light," said Dhiraj Mathur, executive director of education at PriceWaterhouseCoopers India.
Meanwhile, the slowdown in the US economy and the lack of employment opportunities is giving Canada an edge over America.
"The Canadian 'Experience Class' visa programme and post-study work permits has tipped the scale in favour of Canada. It will not only give me a chance to study in the country but also work long-term. Chances of a permanent resident status are also high," said student Mrinal Patwardhan, who joined McGill University in Montreal this year.
Canadian universities have also been pro-active in attracting Indian students. The country issued 12,000 study permits in India in 2010 compared to 3,152 in 2008. This year also saw eight Canadian universities come together to announce funding for a series of India-specific initiatives valued at over $4 million, including the new Globalink Canada-India Graduate Fellowship, which will provide up to 51 scholarships.
Niki Mohapatra, an MBA student at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, said she preferred Canada to the US in part because of the cost. "Fees work out at almost double [Canadian business school fees] in the US. Besides, living expenses are higher in the US," she said.
Closer to home, Indian students are looking at Singapore as a higher education destination, according to education consultants in India, who say the numbers are rising year on year. Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore are popular.  And with reports of an economic downswing in the West, more students are looking to building networks for the future in Asia by attending universities in the region.
Related links
UK: Universities body issues warning over visa reform
UK: Government policies hamper efforts to woo talent
UK: TASMAC debacle prompts call for guarantees
GLOBAL: The future of international student mobility
AUSTRALIA: Doors open to foreign students
AUSTRALIA: Tackling the fall in international education
AUSTRALIA: Collapse in foreign student numbers
UK: Government eases crackdown on student visas
INDIA: Fears of more fraudulent universities in US
INDIA: Outrage over student treatment in US visa case

By Lucienne Tessens, Claire Web and Kate White*. Women's participation in senior and decision-making positions in Australian universities is still low, despite the existence of equal employment opportunity legislation and affirmative action initiatives over the past 25 years, including the growing number of in-house women-only staff development programmes.
The clear evidence of a gender pay gap in universities, combined with the under-representation of senior academic and professional women, suggests continuing systemic and cultural barriers to women's progress within the higher education sector.
Women are still under-represented as academic staff (42.3% in 2009, up from 31.6% in 1994), but they continue to be the majority of general staff (62.9% in 2009, up from 56.8% in 1994). Women comprise only 19.1% of professors.
What are the development needs and support that senior women consider they require to effectively advance their careers?
We looked at two universities. University A is a Group of 8 (Go8) research-intensive university, while University B is a newer dual-sector university. At both universities the representation of senior women has increased significantly over the past 15 years, but women continue to be particularly under-represented as full professors (Level E), especially at the Go8 university.
Women-only programmes are one strategy used by Australian higher education institutions over the last two decades to address gender equity concerns, and are currently experiencing a revival in popularity. At University A a multi-dimensional in-house leadership programme for women was established in 1994 in response to the continuing under-representation of women in academic roles and at senior levels of university decision-making. Its dual focus is developing individual women and changing the organisational culture.
Each year the programme is attended by 30 academic and professional staff women who self-select into the junior or more senior programme. Alternative years are primarily attended by a cohort of women at higher education worker (HEW) levels three to seven and academic levels A to C; the other years are attended by women at HEW Levels seven to 10 and academic Levels C to D. A further programme was established several years ago to cater for the needs of senior women at HEW level nine and above and academic Level C and above. It brings together senior women to foster networks and debate in order to raise the profile of women in higher education.
University B has a leadership programme conducted annually since 2003. It targets women at academic levels B and C, general staff at levels seven to 9, and training and further education [TAFE] at levels senior educator and TAFE teacher four to five. The programme is designed to support and provide skill development for women who aspire to leadership roles and wish to further progress their careers.
We were told that these programmes are not accommodating the needs of the most senior women in the university. Moreover, we and those taking part in the programmes have been asked: 'What about the men?'
There is a perception at universities that we have 'moved on' and that women now enjoy the same opportunities as men. We are discovering that separating staff development activities along gender lines remains a controversial topic despite the clear evidence of the continuing low representation of women in senior positions.
Findings
Our results suggested several themes.
The first was the working conditions of and work pressures on the respondents. Excessive workloads were considered the most significant challenge, followed by high levels of administration, and may explain the discrepancy between the number of women who considered that a senior women's programme should be offered by the university and the smaller number who expressed interest in participating in such a programme.
The gendering of careers was a further theme, resonating with other research. Some considered that men received more support in their careers than women. Men were able to focus on their primary leadership role - or for academics focus on their research - while women were expected to take on multiple roles. The critical role of the manager and minimal resourcing were highlighted as issues.
The results clearly indicate that organisational cultures continue to challenge some senior women. They also suggest that the work environment is becoming more demanding and stressful and in turn impacts on whether or not women consider that they have the time - and energy - to undertake leadership development, even though this may be beneficial to career development.
Nevertheless, another strong theme was how universities could support career advancement by: restructuring roles to reflect workloads; creating opportunities and providing encouragement; supporting women through mentoring, shadowing and acting positions; encouraging relationships with the broader academic community; and restructuring the promotion process to remove perceived bias in appointments, provide clear advancement procedures, and ensure accountability.
Respondents identified key strategies for career advancement as peer support, supervisors, and networks which were underpinned by effective organisational skills and administrative support. However, many experienced lack of support that can, as others have observed, lead women to leave their institution. There was clear support for women-only leadership programmes and belief that a senior women's leadership programme was required to provide the knowledge and skills for leadership in the current tough working environment in the sector.
Respondents identified the main content areas for such a programme as: people management skills, political skills, personal skills, operational skills and career development skills such as networking. Interestingly, they did not consider the traditional workshop format used in women's leadership programmes to be an important component, but preferred targeted leadership development opportunities such as mentoring, peer networks, coaching and 360 degree feedback, and opportunities for shadowing and mentoring at another university.
In short, women felt challenged by the impact of excessive workloads and high levels of administration on their effectiveness; they needed peer support, supervisor support, and networks, underpinned by effective organisational skills and administrative support; and they highlighted the gendering of careers, especially academic careers, evident in male colleagues receiving more support, resources and recognition. However, their leadership development needs were quite similar.
Over 80% of respondents considered that a senior women's leadership programme would provide the knowledge and skills for leadership in the current tough working environment in the sector. However, rather than the traditional workshop format used in leadership programmes they wanted different kinds of content that were more focused on areas such as networking.
* Lucienne Tessens and Claire Web are based at the University of Western Australia in Perth, and Kate White is at the University of Ballarat in Ballarat, Australia.
* This is an edited version of the article "Senior Women in Higher Education Institutions: Perceived development needs and support", which appears in the current edition of The Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management. The article is republished with permission.

By Karl Wilson. Educational institutes climb ladder quickly although they have a long way to go, Karl Wilson reports from Sydney. Look at any world university ranking and the same names pop up high: Harvard, Princeton and Stanford in the United States, Oxford and Cambridge in the United Kingdom. They are the elite of the elite, but you have to look well down the list to find a university from Asia. That might change over time.
China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore are investing more in higher education. Experts hope universities from this region will give top Western schools a run for their money. UK-based Times Higher Education World University Rankings lists five universities in Japan, four in Hong Kong, three each on the Chinese mainland and in South Korea, two in Singapore and one in Taiwan.
"Our top-200 list represents only about 1 percent of the world's universities, so to be in the 200 is in itself an excellent achievement," said Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education magazine, which has published the rankings for eight years.
"Asian nations are well ahead when it comes to literacy, numeracy and scientific competence among school-age children," Baty said. "This, combined with growing private and public investment in universities in Asia, alongside growing economic strength, may see the balance of power in higher education shift in the future."
Critics say the current ranking system betrays a bias toward the West.
"How can you compare Harvard with a university from a developing country?" said Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, vice-chancellor of Al Bukhary International University in Penang, Malaysia. "How do you judge a good university? "By the number of academic papers written in English? Do they promote better education or do they simply promote an elitist, Western system?"
Baty admitted that English-language journal citations tend to dominate, but said journals from other regions are included. "This year we examined more than 50 million citations to around 6 million articles published over five years, with journals drawn from the Thomson Reuters database."
Higher education has turned into a business in many parts of the world, Dzulkifli said. "They pay big money for academics. How can universities in the developing world compete in salary terms with the likes of Princeton? Universities are not football clubs based on a couple of stars."
With higher education now a multibillion-dollar business, especially in the United States and many countries in Europe, it's easy to see why universities want to appear on those lists. The higher you are ranked, the easier it is to market your university and its programs and to attract foreign students willing to pay high fees. In Australia, for example, education is now the country's third largest source of foreign money, with just over 500,000 fee-paying students as of August, according to government data.
Ignore the Joneses
Every year dozens of companies publish their lists of the world's top universities, compiling masses of data from the universities as they go. The most influential are the Times Higher Education World Top 400, the QS World University Rankings, and the US News & World Report World's Best Universities. One critic of the ranking system recently described them as "a high-stakes beauty contest".
Universities, especially those in developing countries, were told recently to avoid trying to keep up with the Joneses. The comment came at a forum organized by UNESCO, the Institutional Management of Higher Education and the World Bank.
"Instead of trying to conform to the prevailing monoculture approach to higher education by funneling scarce public funds to create flagship universities, governments should ignore rankings altogether," forum participants were told.
Sandro Calvani of the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok agrees.
"Asian universities manage knowledge on Asia better than the West and they do it in a way the West cannot see or does not wish to see," Calvani said. He is an education expert and director of the institute's ASEAN Regional Center of Excellence on Millennium Development Goals. In his view, many Western elite universities lack Asian expertise on sustainable development, global public good and human security concerns. "The Times and QS university rankings . . . do not take into consideration the relevant direct outreach work done in Asia by Asian universities to facilitate policy innovation and problem solving."
Apples and oranges?
A Malaysian academic who did not want to be identified said that comparing Asian universities with Harvard is neither relevant nor helpful. "Universities have their own, unique role to play within a society. Comparing them to universities from a different environment and political system is not fair."
The elite US research universities, Baty said, often enjoy very large treasuries and generous alumni donations. The latest data show Harvard's endowment in 2009 was about $26 billion, about the size of Panama's GDP.
"They also enjoy high levels of administrative and academic freedom, which is important to nurturing and protecting world-class universities," Baty said. "This keeps them highly competitive, able to attract the best academic staff with top salaries and to provide cutting-edge facilities."
Very few universities in developing countries "can ever afford to compete with the finances available to these super-elite universities, to avail of the world's who's who of intellectual talent, and to pick and choose from what is considered as cutting-edge research", Calvani wrote in a report.
"For... globally focused universities possessing similar resources and orientation, uniform rankings are probably useful," he said. "Indeed, arguing the relative merits of the scholarship at Cambridge, Massachusetts, versus Cambridge, England, is a fair debate, and even a fun pursuit."
Looking ahead
Tan Eng Chye, deputy president for academic affairs and provost of the National University of Singapore, said the ranking system provides "useful composite indicators" of a university's performance, although "methodological constraints inherent in some rankings may favor some institutions over others."
Tan said, for example, that the Times ranking "gives significant weight to a university's reputation in teaching (15 percent) and research (18 percent), and this may favor older and more established universities - predominantly in Europe and the US - that are more internationally renowned."
However, he thinks Asian universities are at the most exciting phase of their development, and he ticked off his reasons.
"First, Asian countries are investing very heavily in higher education. Second, Asian universities are becoming very research-intensive. And third, Asia is rising rapidly in economic and global importance." Tan sees the future for Asian universities as very bright.

The following is a guest post from Jason E. Lane and Kevin Kinser, co-directors of the Cross-Border Education Research Team at the State University of New York at Albany.
With a staggering unmet demand for higher education and an increasing desire to collaborate with foreign higher-education providers, India has emerged as central component of the global expansion plans for many college and universities. Indeed, for India and the United States, such higher-education collaborations have the potential to strengthen the relationship between the world’s two largest democracies. As such it has attracted significant attention from political leaders as well as higher-education decision makers.
Last month, we attended a higher-education summit held in Washington and a preliminary meeting at Pennsylvania State University focusing on the how partnerships between the two nations might develop. The meetings were prompted by the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative, a project co-sponsored by India and America to spur the development of partnerships and collaboration between higher-education institutions in the two countries. We came away with a fuller appreciation of the challenges India faces in its higher-education sector, as well as the enthusiasm with which American institutions view opportunities for academic partnerships in the country.
The Indian government’s educational projections are incredible: The need to educate 100 million young people by 2020, and a goal of increasing higher-education participation for the age cohort from 15 percent to 30 percent in 10 years. Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal argues that this requires 1,000 new universities and 50,000 new colleges, staffed by a million new faculty members and guided by a revamped quality assurance regime. In his view, partnerships with U.S. universities are a key element for providing the capacity within the Indian educational system needed to meet the surge in demand.
In short, India is staring at tsunami of young people approaching higher education, and the system does not have the capacity to meet the demand. And, if the government is not able to find the means to do so, the country will have a demographic disaster – “just adding mouths to feed, not hands that can work,” according to Narendra Jadhav, a member of the Planning Commission of India, speaking at the Penn State meeting.
But what exactly should the role of American (or other foreign) universities play in the development of educational capacity within India? This question raises a key issue regarding the role of cross-border higher education and the differing perspectives often brought to the table by the host and the home countries. Is the purpose of the activity to build capacity or to be capacity?
India seems to be of two minds on this point. On the one hand, partnerships are envisioned as a way of providing expertise to build new or enhance existing institutions and structures in India. Specific proposals often contemplate the training of faculty for example, or the establishment of new degrees and programs to train the “21st century workforce.” This is classic “building capacity” language.  The expertise of foreign institutions is used to transform the domestic system.
However, collaborations take time to develop and time is not something India has much of. They need to respond quickly to the rapidly approaching tsunami of young people.  Thus, India is also considering importing branch campuses. Branch campuses, while not always an ideal means for building capacity within the system, can quickly “be capacity” by providing additional access to higher education.
But establishing a physical presence in another country through a branch campus or some other variant of a foreign outpost is an enormous commitment. What we will see is likely to be similar to other countries that have taken steps to welcome foreign outposts to their shores, but have stopped short of actively pursuing branch campuses. A few institutions are able to navigate the political barriers, often through personal connections and with the financial support of local authorities, and set up independent degree-granting locations. But most activity is through joint- or dual-degree initiatives that represent modest home campus investment and can be terminated relatively easily by either party.
The question for India is whether either model satisfies the government’s policy concerns. Greater involvement of branch campuses in India could provide a modest increase in the capacity of the country, but it will certainly take indigenous institutions to fully realize the massive increase in access that is envisioned. But meaningful collaborations with foreign institutions take a while to develop and become operational. In addition, opening up their borders to foreign education providers brings some risk as well. Concerns about profiteering institutions should be taken seriously, especially since the U.S. for-profit industry is looking abroad to expand as opportunities at home are constrained by new Department of Education regulations and Congressional inquiries. In sum, India needs to find a way to rapidly increase educational access, while ensuring the quality and sustainability of the educational experience.
India is making an enormous investment in education, and is looking outside its borders for ideas and expertise. U.S. institutions are eager to help. Foreign outposts and international collaborations may form part of the solution, but will it be enough? What other opportunities might exist?

By Yojana Sharma. Local authorities in China have tightened up on debts owed by universities amid fears that big-spending institutions may default on their loans. The move could affect a number of international university collaborations where local and provincial authorities have agreed to fund major construction projects.
According to China's state-run media, provincial and municipal governments are urging indebted universities to repay loans after the National Audit Office reported at the end of 2010 that some 1,164 colleges were burdened with around CNY263.5 billion (US$41.5 billion) as a result of profligate spending over the last decade.
Strict new policies have been introduced to curb new university expansion not approved in the pipeline before 2009. Other capital projects such as expensive reequipping of laboratories and new dormitories will also be frozen, as local governments have had to step in to bail out universities that overreached themselves.
In Kunshan near Shanghai, the policy has reportedly led to cutbacks on new buildings for the planned US Duke University campus financed from Kunshan city coffers. Construction of a building to house research facilities and laboratories has been postponed indefinitely, according to Chinese sources in Kunshan. The building was intended to house Duke's Global Health Institute offering special masters-level courses in China from 2012.
A number of essential buildings will be completed at the Kunshan site, but with the freeze on non-essential projects lasting until 2012, construction of the laboratory building may not resume until 2013 under current policies. In east Anhui province, new infrastructure projects linked to university campuses will not be approved if the campuses currently have the capacity to accommodate all students, according to Yang Delin, deputy director of Anhui's education department.
Universities in Anhui are strictly forbidden to take out bank loans or borrow money from other sources without government approval, Yang was quoted in the official China Daily newspaper as saying. "For those that don't pay back loans the government will cut funding used to help them pay back loans," Yang said.
In an urgent document signed by the ministries of finance and education, on reducing the debts of local higher education institutions and issued by the central government at the end of last year, every province must report the details of university debts to the central government. According to the document, "each province must develop their own plan of how to dramatically reduce university debts. If they do this they will get money from central government to reduce the debt principal - but not the interest," said said Qiang Zha, an associate professor in the faculty of education at York University in Toronto and a research fellow at Shanghai's Fudan University, who is familiar with the government document.
The move will effectively write off a proportion of the debts incurred before 2009 if universities agree to cut back on spending. In the richest provinces of Guangzhou, Jiangsu and Zhejiang some 10% of the debt will be effectively written off, with the central government providing that money in the form of a cash grant to the provincial government. But in poorer provinces they will get back as much as 45% of the principal from the central government if they are able to show a major reduction in university debt.
"This provides an incentive. If they don't reduce their [existing debt] they won't be able to get these large sums of money from the government," said Qiang. "They borrowed without thinking about capacity [to pay] and now they get substantial help - it is like a freebie for provincial governments."
Local governments will not be allowed to borrow from sources other than state-run banks to fund university projects. In recent years funding for university initiatives was sought from shadowy 'investment companies', wealthy individuals and other lenders charging usurious interest. But bank loans are becoming harder to get amid a credit squeeze in China. In central Hubei province local education authorities have urged universities to pay back all CNY13.3 billion of loans in the next five to eight years, some of it by selling underused university land.
Wuhan University in the Hubei capital of Wuhan is collaborating with Duke and Kunshan city on global health research projects at the Kunshan campus. But Wuhan city itself is regarded as one of the 10 most indebted in China, with banks there saying they have stopped lending to local government projects unless profitability is guaranteed. In Anhui the provincial government's education department last month created a university debt database to track the progress of all university loan repayments. Universities and local authorities now have to report their efforts to reduce debt on a monthly basis, said Qiang, who is also a former advisor to Anhui provincial government.
Qiang said 2010-12 was "a period to help local universities. It is clear that the debt must be reduced now because after 2012 provincial universities will not get any more financial help from the central government."

Universities can accept increased numbers of students following senate agreement last week to the Julia Gillard government's higher education expansion plan, writes Stephen Matchett for The Australian. The bill empowers the government to provide a place for every prospective student who is accepted by any university.
According to Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans, the legislation will end bureaucratic control over university enrolments by empowering institutions to accept as many students as they choose, rather than negotiating annual enrolments with Canberra. While the Opposition points to a provision in the legislation that allows the minister to cap places in any field of study, as now occurs in medicine, Liberal higher education spokesman Brett Mason said the coalition supported expanding access to university.
University lobby groups were quick to endorse the legislation. Full report on The Australian site.