The case for TNE in India

I am having a conversion: It seems there is a case for setting up a Transnational Education (TNE) campus in India after all.

I used to think that this was a bad idea. After all, foreign - particularly Western - universities wanted Indian students but did not want to embed themselves into the Indian society and economy. The TNE projects were exercises of 'crack-up capitalism', the neo-liberal project of creating extra-territorial communities. The education they offered were designed for a self-loathing elite which wanted to run away from India, offered by patronising white men who thought who knew better. 

Nothing changed here: This is exactly what the TNE projects continue to represent. But the world has changed and the neoliberal ideas are now well past their heyday. We are in a world of '3 hards': Hard border, hard culture and hard money! The student mobility is reducing and one must find opportunities at home. At the same time, we now have a generation of Indian students who are interested in bringing change. This is a setting that might make even a flawed idea such as TNE work.

The main benefits that TNE projects bring are three-fold: Academic conservatism and diversity in the classroom. 

India is a conservative country but its academic culture has become a private sector wild west, led by poorly educated university owners who care for everything but education. There are big issues at stake: Scientific thinking, academic integrity, and even basic timetabling discipline. Religious superstition of all kinds are practised in campus, adorned as they are with various gods and goddesses of the owner's private faith. Because the professors themselves write for vanity journals and attend made-up conferences, and perhaps even indulged in contract writing their PhDs, the students pick up exactly the same habits. And, finally, and perhaps as a consequence, the student life consists of an endless calendar of events, interspersed with bouts of examinations. The academic conservatism of the high-ranked Western universities, dour and bureaucratic, would actually be a welcome change here. 

One would also hope that there will be less partisan-political interference at the TNE campuses. Partisan politics has afflicted India's public universities, and this is corrupting the private ones in myriad ways: politically influenced appointments are rife, and local politicians interfere in university business, including student admissions, examination scheduling and marking and student events. One would expect they would be able to do less of these in a project subject to authorities beyond their influence.  

At the same time, Indian classrooms lack diversity of culture and language. Many universities operate in their local or regional language. The number of students from outside India remains miniscule. The TNE, along with the hard borders in the Anglophone countries, is likely to change all this. The international universities in India are likely to be international in recruiting the students as well. Such student diversity will hopefully lead to greater academic focus and less partisan environment, because students from outside India may not readily participate in the local celebrity cultures and festivals of superstition. 

As for the integration with Indian economy and society, the students would perhaps force this on the university. Once the escape route is closed and the students know that they have to build a life and career in India, they would demand that the TNE projects don't merely represent pathway options. They would ask about outcomes, RoI etc. and force the campus leaders to think in the same lines.

Therefore, my case for TNE is based entirely on negative factors. I don't expect innovation, because for a foreign university to understand Indian realities and come up with ideas to design the kind of education Indian students need or want would be too much to ask for. 

But, India has millions of ambitious, capable university students, who are being mis-educated in a flawed and overtly politicised mass education system, built around the imitations of the west. It is already quite late: The Indian students are restive and the economy is experiencing jobless growth. In my despondence, I see hope in the TNE projects to bring back the basics such as academic rigour and operational discipline, brands to protect itself from partisan interference and economic incentives for diversified student recruitment.