Time has witnessed that despite having legacy of elite existence of over hundreds of years; very few universities have chosen to have their campuses abroad. The entry standards for students at these universities are very high and often their leaders take pride in the low acceptance rates as students all over the world dream of securing a seat at their most prestigious Universities. Having mentioned this, there are several encouraging examples where Universities ranked amongst the top 500 do have offshore campusesCornell University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Northwestern University have offshore campuses in Qatar. Duke University has set up Duke Kunshan University (DKU) at Kunshan in China in partnership with Wuhan University, China. Monash University and the University of Nottingham also have offshore campuses in Malaysia. The new National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 had envisioned that top universities in the world will be facilitated to operate for the first time in India. For this, a legislative framework facilitating such entry will be put in place, and such universities will be given special dispensation regarding regulatory, governance, and content norms on par with other autonomous institutions of India," UGC said. The regulatory framework allowing the entry of higher-ranked foreign varsities will provide an international dimension to higher education, enable Indian students to obtain foreign qualifications at affordable cost, and make India an attractive global study destination.
This move to internationalize education came as a step towards maintaining India's heavily regulated education sector to allow Indian students to obtain foreign qualifications without leaving the country. The foreign varsities will be at the liberty to determine their syllabus and admission processes if the quality of the knowledge imparted does not differ from that of their parent campus, said UGC. The qualifications bestowed by foreign varsities in India will also be at par with their counterparts abroad. Foreign higher education institutions (FHEI) will be free to admit students from both India and other countries. The criteria for admission and the frequency of their intakes are to be decided by FHEIs. Reserved quotas for Indian students will exist only if a varsity wishes to do so.“The fee structures for foreign institutions in India will be left up to the discretion of these varsities, provided that they are transparent and reasonable about it,” explained the UGC. The foreign universities, based on their evaluation process, can provide needbased, partial, or full scholarships to students from their own funds, alumni donations, or even tuition funds. This is an international practice where students who come from weak financial backgrounds are provided scholarships based on evaluation.
Against this background, the Foundation for Education for All has recently invited to submit the prestigious proposal to the progressive hill state of the country like Uttarakhand for setting up the first-ever ‘International Hi-tech Edu City (IEC) in close association with the world’s top-ranked foreign universities and joining hands with the State Government of Uttarakhand and the Government of India for providing global higher education programs in sunrise areas like STEM & Multi-Disciplinary Areas, Medical & Public Health, Films & Media, Sports & Yoga, Tourism & Hospitality, New-Age Skills & VET besides promoting the delivery of high quality higher education in a modular fashion with clear and multiple entry-exit pathways as suggested by the NEP 2020.
The proposed Hi-tech International Edu City’s campus is a living test bed of tomorrow’s technologies set among the country’s most beautiful foreign university campus amonst the Indian hill states, to replicate one of the successful models of International Education City in countries like South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Qatar, and Malaysia, well aligned with the reforms of the NEP 2020 which advocate the multidisciplinary approach in Indian higher education institutions. It has the vision to create a smart campus that would demonstrate how innovative digital and tech-enabled solutions can support better learning and living experiences, the discovery of new knowledge, and the sustainability of resources. The IEC campus will launch a new interdisciplinary platform to explore the contemporary impact of technology on society as highlighted in the National Education Policy of India (NEP) 2020. This hi-tech edu campus will be home to a critical mass of talent and infrastructure in the key areas shaping the 4th Industrial Revolution. State-of-the-art buildings will have the Hive and the Arc incorporate flipped classroom pedagogy within smart classrooms which will be designed for greater interaction, and course materials will be optimized for learning on electronic devices. In addition, students will take core educational modules in digital literacy to prepare for a new world shaped by digital technologies.
The structure of the IEC campus, thus, consists of many reputed STEM based higher education schools, colleges, centers, and institutes supported by the world’s top-ranked overseas universities and hi-tech science & tech village over the period of time in the country. The proposed IEC campus in the state is planning to adopt path-breaking technological innovations and hybrid learning management systems, etc., which are now becoming a part and parcel of new education system. Considering the leading Edu-tech trends that are driving and will continue to drive the education sector soon, higher educational institutions in the IEC campus will thus adopt the innovative edu technologies while delivering market-driven graduate courses and programs. A good experience either from a school, a college or a university cannot merely be defined by a rigorous academic stint that focuses mainly on discipline-specific learning. In International Edu City campus, learning continues beyond the four walls of the classroom, lecture theatre, library and laboratory. It is not primarily academic-based or program-specific, but rather, goes beyond the formal curriculum to develop the holistic individuals. It will provide students a dynamic and enriching residential education through a host of programs at school, college and university level under a single platform for the first time in the state.
The Hi-tech International Edu City is a pioneering project located in the state, comprising boarding schools, smart schools, hi-tech professional colleges, hi-tech technology university, hybrid science & tech village and group of reputed foreign universities and institutes of higher education, R&D centers, as well as student accommodations, shared sports and recreational facilities. The International Education City aspires to create country’s "best-in-class" higher education destination with superior academic environment for students and staff to live, work, study and play. Students and staff in IEC campus will enjoy an integrated campus experience with ready access to shared amenities in the proposed International Students’ Village, which offer dynamic lifestyle and living options. The project is set to the change the face of Indian higher education and foreign education in the State of Uttarakhand. Also, proposed global residential campus is the learning hub which will be a new hive of student activities and learning. Upcoming recreational facilities include a lifestyle hub with new food and retail outlets as well as more spaces to mingle which will add additional stateof-the-art infrastructure facilities in the international students’ village. Hi-tech International Education City’s campus is 100 acres in the first phase and it may be expanded to 500 acres after 5 years, a garden campus which will be one of the largest international education city campuses in India and hopefully developed as one of the country’s most beautiful hill campuses over. Within a green oasis of tree lined boardwalks, hilly tracks, snow mountains, natural lakes, sky terraces and a natural pond, students will experience new ways of living, learning and leisure in the state which is popularly called as “Paradise on the Earth”. With its unique shared service model developed by proposed corporate sponsored Hi-tech Science & Tech Village in the International Edu City Campus in the state, as well as promoting the first generation companies and academic cluster model between its partner institutions via sharing of resources, expertise, knowledge and experience and leveraging on the individual strengths while creating a global brand and platform for collaboration, Science & Tech Village and its partners hope to develop this hub as a showcase for globalizing higher education and generation of new employment opportunities. Over the period it will become a global hub for research, innovation and entrepreneurship to foster the transitioning of the state economy towards a knowledge economy. The mission of the Hybrid Science & Tech Village is to lead innovation and encourage an entrepreneurial environment in the state. It seeks to do so by creating an active and productive link between national and international stakeholders; by supporting the production and commercialization of innovative products; and by helping to develop tomorrow’s business leaders.