Even prior to the NEP 2020, the Government of India had endeavoured to bring foreign higher educational institutions (“FEI”) in India by way of permitting twinning arrangements with Indian higher educational institutions (“IHEI”) under the University Grants Commission (Promotion & Maintenance of Standards of Academic Collaboration between Indian and Foreign Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2016. However, due to the tedious approval process for each programme and limited routes of collaborations, there were very few IHEIs which collaborated with FEIs for such recognised programmes.

In pursuit of the objectives of the NEP 2020 and to simplify the existing collaboration process, the Ministry of Education recently notified the University Grants Commission (Academic Collaboration between Indian and Foreign Higher Educational Institutions to offer Twinning, Joint Degree and Dual Degree Programmes) Regulations, 2022 (“Collaboration Regulations”) in supersession of the erstwhile regulations.

A few key takeaways from the Collaboration Regulations are:

• Introduction of Joint degree and dual degree programmes

Unlike the erstwhile regulations which only permitted collaborations in the form of twinning programmes, the Collaboration Regulations now permit dual and joint degree programmes as well.

• Joint degree programmes
  • The curriculum will be designed jointly by the collaborating IHEI and FEI.
  • The degree will be awarded by the IHEI and the collaborating FEI through a single certificate, upon completion of the programme.
  • The students are required to earn at least 30% of the total credits from each of the collaborating institutions.

• Dual degree programme
  • The programme will be jointly designed and offered by the IHEI and FEI in the same disciplines/subject areas and in the same level.
  • The IHEI and FEI, will award separate degrees, simultaneously, upon completion of degree requirements of both the institutions for programmes which have to be in similar disciplines and subject areas or levels.
  • The prospective students are required to meet the admission requirements of both the IHEI and FEI; and apply to and be admitted separately to both the institutions.
  • The students are required to earn at least 30% of the total credits from the IHEI.

• Twinning arrangement
  • The students enrolled with an IHEI may undertake their programme of study partly in India, complying with the relevant University Grants Commission (“UGC”) regulations, and partly in the FEI.
  • The degree offered under such twinning arrangement will be awarded by the IHEI only.
  • Credits earned by the students at the FEI will be counted towards the degree awarded by the IHEI. However, credits earned by the student from the FEI cannot exceed 30% of the total credits for the programme.
  • Each institution is required to issue a transcript for their respective courses, with a remark indicating that the student has taken certain modules at the partner institution, wherever applicable.
  • The IHEI is required to ensure that the credits earned by the students from the FEI are not from overlapping course contents/curriculum.

• No approval required from UGC

A key change from the erstwhile regulations is the dispensation of the requirement of approval from the UGC by the IHEI prior to entering into a collaboration with the FEI. Under the Collaboration Regulations, the UGC will monitor and regulate the collaborations through mandatory public disclosure.

While dispensing such requirement for approval from UGC, in order to ensure the quality of education being imparted is of the highest standard, such collaborations have been restricted only between FEIs in the top 1000 of Times Higher Education or QS World University ranking and IHEIs who meet each of the following eligibility criteria:

• must be a university within the meaning of Section 2(f) or an institution deemed to be university under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956; and
• has to be accredited by National Assessment and Accreditation Council with a minimum score of 3.01 on a 4-point scale or figure in the top 100 in university category of National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) (at the time of application) or figure in the top 1000 Times Higher Education or QS World University.

However, while the approval from UGC is not required, the IHEIs are still required to obtain the approval of:

• their internal board of governors/board of management/syndicate/executive council etc. for collaborations with any FEI; and
• the relevant statutory councils/ bodies before entering into collaboration for technical, medical, legal, agricultural and such other professional programmes.

• Memorandum of Understanding

The IHEI is required to enter into a written Memorandum of Understanding or Agreement with its partner FHEI(s) for collaboration (“MOU”). Such MOU is required to include provisions related to purpose of the collaboration, student obligations, tuition fees and other financial arrangements, intellectual property rights, student’s attendance patterns, duration of stay for the study programme in both the higher education institutions, joint supervision arrangements, language of thesis and examinations, admission and evaluation process and graduation procedures, wherever applicable.

• Equivalence of degree

Ordinarily, a degree awarded by a FEI is not automatically recognised in India. Students who have been awarded degrees by FEIs are required to obtain an equivalence certificate from the Association of Indian Universities for the purposes of recognition of such degrees in India.

The erstwhile regulations did not have to deal with this issue of equivalence of degrees as the students were awarded degrees only by the IHEI. However, considering that the Collaboration Regulations permit the FEIs to award degrees as well, singly or jointly, the concern regarding the recognition of such degrees awarded by the FEI would arise.

The Collaboration Regulations have appropriately dealt with this issue by providing a clarification that the degree awarded by the FEI will be equivalent to any corresponding degree awarded by the IHEI and there will be no need to seek equivalence from any authority.

• Reciprocal Collaborations

The erstwhile regulations only envisaged collaboration arrangements wherein Indian students would have the opportunity to attend the collaboration programmes. However, the Collaboration Regulations also envisage students from foreign universities attending such collaboration programmes.

• Freedom to fix the fee

The IHEIs and FEIs have been provided the freedom to fix the fee payable for the programmes. Such fees as applicable for the entire duration of the programme (including courses imparted by the FEI) is required to be made public at the time of admission. Further, such fee structure should be reasonable so as to make quality higher education accessible and affordable to all sections of the society.

While the Collaboration Regulations have introduced major changes to relax the erstwhile regulatory regime, a few clarifications from the legislators or the UGC will improve their implementation:

• Prohibition on programmes being imparted through online mode and Open and Distance Learning mode:

The Collaboration Regulations clearly specify that the programmes offered thereunder are not permitted to be offered in online mode and Open and Distance Learning mode. Accordingly, the programmes can only be offered in conventional mode, i.e., learning opportunities through face-to-face interaction between the teacher and learner in regular class room environment including supplementary instructions if any for the learner through use of online.

However, going forward, in order to meet the objectives of the NEP 2020 with respect to improving accessibility to quality education, it would be a good enhancement to the Collaboration Regulations to gradually permit such recognised collaborative programmes to be delivered through online mode and Open and Distance Learning mode (either partially or in their entirely).

• Lack of clarity on content and manner of disclosure to the UGC:

While the Collaboration Regulations provide that UGC will monitor the collaborations through mandatory disclosure, they do not provide the content and manner of disclosure by the IHEIs and FEIs.

The need for details on the disclosures is not only vital for the IHEIs and FEIs, but also to the students who are applying for such collaboration programmes. Further, the manner of disclosure will be key to ensuring that students and the public at large are aware of which IHEIs and FEIs are duly recognised to offer the programmes under the Collaboration Regulations.

• Restriction on the seat of dispute:

While the Collaboration Regulations are silent on the law governing the MOU, it provides that any dispute arising in relation to the collaborative arrangement between the FEIs and IHEIs under the Collaboration Regulations is required to be governed by Indian law. This condition restricts the ability of the parties (both from different jurisdictions) to agree to a neutral jurisdiction to govern the dispute resolution.

Overall, the Collaboration Regulations provide a great opportunity for foreign universities to enter the Indian education sector and offer recognised foreign degrees while waiting on the introduction of regulations permitting foreign universities to independently set-up campuses in India. In addition, the collaboration will aid in improving the global ranking of IHEIs by not only providing access to Indian students to foreign education at a marginally lower cost and without the need to be troubled with the problem of equivalency of such degree, but also an opportunity to international students to come and study in India.

To conclude, these regulations are an impressive pilot model to achieve the objective of internationalisation of higher education under the NEP 2020.

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