Foreign Education Provider Bill Up for Introduction

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Dec. 1 – Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has expressed hopes that a Foreign Education Providers Bill will be introduced in the ongoing session of Parliament and reach a consensus reports Press Trust of India.

If the bill is passed it will allow foreign education providers to enter and operate in India and accorded the same status as local universities.

“There is some resistance to the bill. We will however strive for a consensus on it and hope to introduce it in this Parliament session,” he said during a video conference held in New Delhi on the announcement of Infosys Prize 2009.

India has been the United States’ largest source of international students for for eight years in a row. The country sent 103, 260 students to the United States during the recent school year.

Sibal said, “most of our (Indian) universities need vital changes in teaching and in contributing to local, regional and global economies.”

“We must ensure that the universities have the independence to teach what they wish to and not be controlled by government,” he added. The government has a pending proposal to establish 14 world-class innovative universities.