“Foreign universities set to invade India.” If you are thinking that this is a recent news headline, then you are mistaken. This is from India Abroad article of January 18, 2002. Eight years later there is resurgence of the news about foreign universities entering India in big numbers. However, this time it has a more optimistic undertone and has gained greater attention from foreign higher education institutions and also several corporate houses.
In the US, the Department of Education has funded a program at the Institute of International Education which aims at strengthening academic collaborations between US-India. As a part of this program 10 US institutions have been identified which will participate in a range of training, assessment and strategic planning activities to build partnerships with India. [I am serving on the advisory board of the program].
At the institutional level, student exchange programs had been existing between Indian and foreign universities. However, lately, there is increasing interest for more extensive collaborations which extend into program offerings. For example, Leeds MET has partnered with Dainik Jagran group and Virginia Tech has announced its collaboration with MARG group to establish a campus in Chennai. Earlier, Monash University had established joint-PhD program with IIT Mumbai.
Challenges:
There are only a handful of successful and effective partnerships, like ISB and many more institutions are struggling to find right partners and few others partnerships have remained on paper only. Without discounting the challenges posed by lack of resources and regulatory constraints, I argue that institutions also face challenges in building effective and sustainable partnerships due to a lack of strategic approach in identifying the right partners and nurturing the partnership for long term benefits. Some of these challenges are related to strategies and approaches of institutions and could be addressed in an effective manner.
In last three years several high profile delegations visited India to assess the market and partners. Some have found partners, while most have not. Finding the right fit partner is not easy. From foreign university side there is persistent concern about the brand dilution and credibility of Indian partner. From an Indian institution’s perspective there is a lack of understanding of the functioning, needs and segments of foreign institutions. This results in poor identification of potential partners and also loss in opportunities available from partner universities.
Even if the partnership is established, there are challenges in sustaining that relationship. Charles Klasek highlights that “It is not difficult to sign an agreement with universities of all types throughout the world; it is difficult to implement the agreements so that there are mutual academic benefits to the institutions involved.”
Strategies:
Given below are five approaches for building and sustaining international academic collaborations.
1. Clarify the level of commitment for collaboration: This is of utmost importance to articulate the depth and width of commitment from partnering institutions. Institutions may have similar or different reasons for coming together but they should have explicit understanding of the motivators and needs of each other. This helps in setting realistic expectation levels. They should also be able to understand the wide range of collaboration opportunities available from short-term student and faculty exchange to joint-programs to full-fledged campus and that each of them requires different level of commitment level.
2. Integrate with the societal needs: Higher education institutions do not exist in vacuum; they exist in the context of the societal and industrial needs. This is where academic collaborations would find its best fit opportunities. Institutions should not only assess their internal capabilities and resources but also align them with the pressing needs of society and industry. This helps in making a convincing case to prospective foreign institution in collaborating for an area of high impact and need. For example, the inadequate teacher training and supply of talent pool is an area of concern for India and hence focus of Azim Premji University on education is very opportune.
3. Take an interdisciplinary approach: While one has to identify an area of strength, institutions should explore to collaborations at the interfaces of disciples. There are several interdisciplinary programs which may be more open and even more relevant for academic collaborations. For example, if an Indian B-school is looking for a foreign academic collaboration, it does not have to restrict only to a B-school; it could even be explore relationships with college of public administration or international studies at leading universities.
4. Explore beyond the big brands: There is a tendency among institutions to seek partners which have a brand reputation higher than their own in the home country. For example, an institution in India would frantically try to get alliance with an Ivy League institution. While, this adds to halo effect and helps in gaining credibility, it also misses the opportunity presented by foreign institutions which may be more willing to invest and commit to build their brand in India. This also assumes that if the brand is not well-known in India it is not worth pursuing, even though the institution may be of high quality. So there is a need for a deeper understanding of the quality and types of institutions and how they best fit with the overall goals of collaboration.
5. Engage corporate houses: Several corporate houses have expressed their interest in venturing into higher education sector. Some of them intend to build high quality institutions, contribute back to society and leave a legacy for their name. For example, Shiv Nadar University is a not-for-profit project with expected budget of US$600 million. With this level of investment, the university project is not going to generate wealth for Shiv Nadar but definitely it would generate knowledge, reputation and talent. Likewise, there are several others who wish to leave their legacy and could be engaged by government and foreign universities.
Robert Stein and Paula Short conclude that “…collaboration is a complex phenomenon, especially as one considers the array of options and relationships on the menu.” This complexity of building and sustaining effective collaborations could be simplified by leveraging the strategies explained above.
Dr. Rahul Choudaha
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