5 foreign universities awarded LOIs to start campuses in Navi Mumbai; fees 25% lower than overseas
Mumbai: Five foreign universities that were awarded letters of intent (LOIs) to set up full-fledged campuses in Navi Mumbai will offer courses at fees at least 25-30% lower than what students currently pay to study abroad, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced at an event on Saturday.
The idea is to make foreign education both accessible and affordable to Indian students, he added.
Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who was also in Mumbai for the event, said including the five in Navi Mumbai, nine foreign universities have already been given permission to start operations in the country, and six more are in the pipeline. Two have already started offering their programmes in Gujarat's Gift City, he added.
The University of Aberdeen (UK), the University of York (UK), the University of Western Australia, the Illinois Institute of Technology (US), and the Istituto Europeo di Design (Italy) were granted the LOIs under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, at the 'Mumbai Rising: Creating an International Education City' event held in Colaba on Saturday. Officials said the five universities in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) have been given an 18-month window to start operations in the country and will enjoy full autonomy in deciding the programmes, the academic session, curriculum, fees, among other things.
These will be open to international students as well.
Fadnavis said the entry of the five foreign universities will launch the state's dream of making Mumbai and Maharashtra an international education hub. The idea is to host at least 10 leading international universities in the Education City, he said, adding talks are on with a few more universities. These foreign institutions will not only make global education affordable for Indian students, but also help in creating a global workforce, he said.
Fadnavis added the state will only be facilitating the universities' plans to set up campuses but will not bear any financial responsibility. The foreign universities will not be following any constitutional reservations, and scholarship policies will be as per their individual policies, said the CM. Other state universities will be free to collaborate with these universities to offer joint programmes. For instance, said Fadnavis, Gondwana University in Gadchiroli, which is setting up a mining hub, has already collaborated with an Australian university and will be using their expertise in mining.
The 250-acre EduCity, being developed by Cidco, is within a five-km radius of the Navi Mumbai International Airport, and this region will soon also be developed as a medicity, a sports city, and a yet-to-be-announced innovation city – a one-of-its-kind innovation ecosystem in the country.
Pradhan said that NEP will allow global institutions to establish branches in India and Indian institutions to open campuses abroad. He spoke about Indian universities setting up campuses abroad, including IIT-Madras (in Zanzibar), IIT-Delhi (in Abu Dhabi), and IIM-Ahmedabad (in Dubai). The entry of foreign universities will accelerate India's progress in education and development, he added.
Vineet Joshi, acting chairman of UGC, Cidco MD Vijay Singhal, were present at the event along with Consul Generals from respective countries and academic officials from the five foreign universities.
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