Borderless universities across the Bay of Bengal
The seven countries that form part of the Bay of Bengal region are home to about 22% of the world’s population. Sandwiched between regional groups such as the ASEAN and the SAARC, the nations in the Bay of Bengal region never really gained much traction in achieving their objectives. However, with a formal initiative such as the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) now firmly in place, there is hope for trade-led cooperation. India looks to BIMSTEC to take the lead for greater regional economic cooperation since there are no long-standing political conflicts amongst member countries, unlike India’s challenges with Pakistan in SAARC.
It is quite commendable for the member countries to have focused only on regional cooperation through the lens of economic ties since it is the only sustainable means of long-term ties. One of the stated objectives of BIMSTEC is “to provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research facilities in the educational, professional and technical spheres”. However, when you peruse the list of sectors identified by BIMSTEC, ‘Education’ is missing.
Home to 1/5th of the world’s population and growing at rates that only emerging economies are now known to achieve, it is imperative for education to be a focus area of cooperation. Also evident from the demographic indicators is the fact that the region is home to nearly 25% of the world population of young people in the age group of 10-24. Borderless education is a term that is gaining currency in recent times. A case can therefore be made for creating meta universities.
A meta university is a concept in higher education under which students can pursue their studies in different networked universities both via in-person contact programmes and via technology-assisted platforms. Students can choose to go to a brick-and-mortar university for some duration of their programme and then opt to receive certain credits through technology-assisted learning from another university. This allows students to fulfil their learning objectives through a flexible and innovative choice-based credit system where they can pick credits from more than one university.
Countries in the BIMSTEC region have a perfect setting to experiment with the creation of a network of borderless universities. Let us look at some challenges and ways to address them.
a) Visa: The key to enabling international mobility of faculty and students in the BIMSTEC region is the issue of an appropriate visa. Let us call it the BIMSTEC Study Visa. Students wanting to study in the region should be granted multiple entry, long stay visas. To stay true to the cause of supporting greater regional cooperation, these visas should also allow the students to stay on for a further period of time beyond their programme duration to be able to seek job opportunities, internship or any such relevant experience. Similarly, faculty and academic administrators also need to be brought into this ambit.
b) Regulatory approvals: The concept of borderless universities or meta universities will truly succeed when students are able to gain credits at one university and transfer them to a university in a different country with minimal disruption. This can be achieved on the basis of reciprocal recognition of university standards and degrees. The University Grants Commission or the Higher Education Commission or equivalent bodies of the member countries should be aligned to this concept. Faster recognitions of equivalence and approval of transfers would be key. BIMSTEC can house an Exchange within its secretariat to help push this. The services rendered could be chargeable and thus this could be a self-serving entity in the medium to long term. A biannual summit of regulators can be held to exchange notes on the various reforms being undertaken and to take stock of, and learn from, the global trends in higher education.
c) Financial cooperation: An alliance such as the BIMSTEC would be well served by creating an educational fund that would help universities to scale up to become world-class. The financial assistance could be for specific projects in the form of grants. This will create a spirit of competition for universities in the region to move up.
d) Scholarships and financial aid: Access to high-quality education comes at a cost. Students need to be provided with financial aid and scholarships to pursue programmes at universities in the region. A BIMSTEC Scholarship Fund can help not only address this issue but also incentivise students to study at various universities of the region.
As utopian as it may sound, borderless universities are a reality. World over, networks of universities are already working together to make this concept work. The pandemic has disrupted traditional classroom-led education delivery and learning. It can also accelerate creation of new models and Borderless Universities across the Bay could be one such.
D N V Kumara Guru (Views expressed are personal) (Tweets @KumaraGuru)
Director, External Relations, Indian School of Business