The UGC rules will be applicable to all such potential projects, except those in GIFT City, where only the IFSCA guidelines will be applicable. (File Photo)To encourage foreign universities to set up campuses in Gujarat’s GIFT City, the Centre has notified regulations saying such entities will be free to repatriate profit to their parent campuses.
The regulations of the International Financial Services Authority (IFSCA), which is GIFT City’s regulatory body, come at a time when the University Grants Commission (UGC) is drafting rules that govern foreign educational institutions that want to set up campuses in India.
The UGC rules will be applicable to all such potential projects, except those in GIFT City, where only the IFSCA guidelines will be applicable.
“The Parent Entity shall be permitted to repatriate profit, if any, without any restriction,” the IFSCA guidelines, published in the Gazette of India on October 12, stated.
Notably, an Education Ministry committee that recently framed guidelines for the expansion of IITs in foreign countries had recommended that the parent institutes in India should expect a reasonable amount of royalty from such offshore campuses — around 10 to 15 per cent of the overall expenditure of the offshore campus.
In a similar vein, the IFSCA regulations will allow foreign institutes to repatriate profits from campuses they set up in GIFT City.
Incidentally, the draft regulations floated by the IFSCA in June had not mentioned this aspect.
Meanwhile, the IFSCA’s notified regulations also underline that the courses or programmes to be offered by the foreign universities’ campuses “shall be identical in all respects with the course or programme” offered by them back home.
The degree, diploma or certificates will also have to be identical, the regulations say. These shall also “enjoy the same recognition and status as if they were conducted by the parent entity in its home jurisdiction”.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced in the annual Budget 2022-23 that world-class foreign universities and institutions would be allowed in GIFT City to offer courses in financial management, FinTech, science, technology, engineering and mathematics “free from domestic regulations…”
The regulations mandate that the applicant foreign universities must be placed within the top 500 of the latest round of QS rankings.