Varsity MoUs on foreign tie-ups to be placed before cabinet

NEW DELHI: The cabinet secretariat has refused to relent to human resource development (HRD) ministry’s plea to exempt higher educational institutions from seeking cabinet approval for foreign collaborations saying the Memorandum of understanding (MoUs) could be placed before the cabinet ex post facto, that is, after they are signed.

The cabinet secretariat in April had issued a circular asking all ministries/departments to ensure every MoU signed by an agency with any foreign country/ agency be routed through the cabinet.

The HRD ministry early this month wrote to the cabinet secretariat asking it to exempt the higher educational institutions that sign an array of MoUs with foreign universities to exempt from the said direction.

In its letter, the ministry argued that since huge impetus on internationalisation of education was being given a number of MoU are expected to be signed in the near future and therefore MoUs for educational exchanges be exempted under broad framework of cultural exchanges, sources said.

It further argued that long process of approval for such a large number of MoUs would hinder internationalisation for attaining quality in country’s higher education system. It also said the ministry did not have the wherewithal to go through every MoU signed between Indian institutions and foreign ones.

Every year higher educational institutions including IITs, IIMs and central universities sign agreements with foreign universities for various activities like student/faculty exchange. Joint research programmes, leadership development programmes, joint degree programmes, development of community colleges and skill development.

The HRD ministry’s letter to the cabinet secretariat was sent before president Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Russia where a number of MoUs between the Indian universities and Russian Universities were to be signed.