Bill on foreign universities likely in current session of Parliament: Sibal

The government is striving for a consensus on the issue of entry of foreign universities and other educational institutions into the country and a bill to that effect is likely to be introduced in the ongoing session of Parliament, human resource development minister Kapil Sibal said on Monday.

He said there is "resistance" from domestic institutions and private players in the education sector to the entry of foreign education providers in the country.
 
"There is some resistance to the bill. We will, however, strive for a consensus on it and hope to introduce it in this Parliament session," he said during his address (video conference from Delhi) at the Infosys Prize 2009 announcement.

The Foreign Education Providers Bill seeks to regulate the entry and operations of foreign education providers in India. The bill proposes to give deemed university status to such universities in the country.

Sibal said 1 lakh students from India go to the US every year for further studies and passing of such a bill would be a "win-win situation for us".

Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed a bill seeking to set up an additional central university in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2009 was passed unanimously in the Lok Sabha by a voice vote paving the way for setting up one Central University in Jammu and another in Kashmir.