Indian and foreign higher educational institutions will soon be able to offer dual degrees, joint degrees and twinning programmes, with the University Grants Commission (UGC) approving the regulations governing the courses.

The UGC on Tuesday approved the UGC (Academic Collaboration between Indian and Foreign Higher Education Institutions to offer Joint Degree, Dual Degree and Twinning Programmes) Regulations, 2021 that will allow an Indian educational institution to collaborate with foreign institutions on its own to offer academic programmes.

The UGC had notified a similar regulation in 2012 and amended it in 2016. However, the institutions did not take interest because the regulation made UGC’s prior approval mandatory.

Under the revised regulations, UGC approval will no more be required, UGC chairman Prof M. Jagadesh Kumar said. “Two universities will decide their collaboration and go ahead. They need not come to the UGC. This will help Indian students get quality education and exposure to foreign institutions. This will also attract foreign students to Indian institutions,” Kumar said.

Indian institutions accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with a minimum score of 3.01 and above and foreign institutions ranked among top 1000 global institutions by international ranking agencies such as Times Higher Education and QS World University are eligible for collaboration.

The draft policy, which was uploaded on the UGC website in February 2021 for feedback, stipulated that foreign institutions ranked among top 500 global instituitions would be allowed to collaborate with Indian institutions. Kumar said the rule had been relaxed to accommodate more institutions.

According to the proposed policy, a twinning programme will be a collaborative arrangement under which students enrolled with an Indian higher education institution may do their course partly in India and partly at the foreign institution. In this case, students will have to complete 30 per cent of the course’s credits at the foreign institution. The Indian institution will accept the credits earned abroad and award the degree or diploma.

For a joint degree programme, students will have to complete more than 30 per cent of total course credit at the foreign institution. The degree will be awarded by the Indian institution indicating credits earned from the foreign institution.

Under the dual degree programme, the Indian and foreign institutions will each award a degree — separately and simultaneously — once the student completes the requirements of both the institutions. Here, too, a student has to complete at least 30 per cent of the course credit at the foreign institute.

Prof. Onkar Singh, first vice-chancellor of Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology, said the new policy would lead to discrimination and victimisation of students from the socially and economically backward families.

“The whole idea behind twinning, joint or dual degree is to add brand value to the degree awarded by the Indian institution. In such a case, the cost of the academic programme will be higher than the cost involved in a pure Indian degree. Those who can afford will pay and go for such courses. The poor and the socially backward are unlikely to take advantage. Equity will be a casualty in the process,” Singh said.

He said some of the private institutions had been already running similar courses that were costlier.

“The employers will attach more weightage to the dual degree or joint degree than the pure Indian degrees. That way, it will be discrimination against the bright poor students who will be compelled to pursue education in India,” Singh said.

According to Singh, as the higher education sector is loaded with private institutions, which also skilfully market themselves, the new policy will be used by them more than the government institutions. The private institutions will charge differential fees from students and make profit.

“Within private institutions, there will be varied fee structure and categories of students, depending on their paying abilities,” Singh added.