Chinese universities and educational institutions are the latest to launch the education marketing campaign in India, offering multiple choices from general subjects to technical education and medicine studies at both under-graduate and post-graduate levels. For a curtain raiser, Chinese institutions are prepared to offer even free learning experience and free pre-admission Chinese language coaching facility to Indian students willing to study in China.

China is holding 'education fairs' across the country offering T-shirts and wrist watches to attract Indian students. Both Singapore and Russia are beefing up their education marketing campaigns with 'extra bonuses'. For instance, Russian medical colleges are offering free coaching to Indian graduate and post-graduate students to clear the Medical Council of India (MCI) test for registration in India. The UK, traditionally the second most preferred destination to foreign education seeking Indian students after the USA, is lately offering a two-year visa extension to pupils if they get local placements or jobs after their study. This is to compete with the USA, Australia and New Zealand which allows foreign students to take up local jobs.

No wonder, Indian students are leaving in hordes for overseas studies like never before. The annual outage is now estimated at close to 1,50,000 students. The number is growing every year. They are costing the Reserve Bank of India a whopping $ 3-3.5 billion per annum from the country's foreign exchange kitty which is fast depleting because of growing export deficits and falling remittances from Indian workers abroad on account of global depression. The exchange outgo is a big loss to the country. More than the so-called brain drain, it is the foreign exchange drain that is a matter of concern. In majority cases, the quality of students opting for foreign degrees and the quality of education abroad are sub-standard. They hardly pay back or add value to the nation.

The first choice of admission of highly merited Indian students, after clearing the final school examination, is any of the top local institutions such as the IITs, medical colleges and management institutes and reputed university colleges in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune. At post-graduate levels, IIMs, IISc, TIFR, AIIMS, TISS, Xavier Institute, Bajaj Institute of Management, IIFT and a host of other international-quality specialised technical and technology institutes are in great demand for pursuing higher education by good quality Indian students. They are world-class educational institutions and affordable as well. These great centres of learning are all well-subsidised by the government. The campus placement rate is very high, almost 100 per cent. They cause least mental tension to the parents and the students alike.

Then, why is this growing mad rush for under-graduate studies abroad? Who are these students? What is their financial background? After all, foreign education does not come cheap. With food and lodging, tuition fees and educational aids, the annual expenses per student vary from 14,000-22,000 pounds in the UK (depending on the name and the location of the institute), 12,000-20,000 dollars in the USA, 10,000-13,000 dollars in Australia and 8,000-11,000 dollars in New Zealand. Obviously, the rich and the upper class parents alone can afford to spend this kind of money for education of their kids abroad. Students or their parents opting for such education belong mostly to the category of such pupils who fail to make the grade for admission in top Indian educational centres and have enough money to support their studies abroad.

As it is seen in a good number of cases, such foreign degrees from some of the second or third-rate overseas institutes do not improve their job prospects either at home or abroad. It is a matter of pity. Although their rich parents may not consider this a waste, such 'junk' foreign education is costing the nation billions of dollars in foreign exchange earned at the expense of the labour and hard work by poor people, engaged in export production of such low-waged items as garments, granites, carpets, metal-ware, cut and polished diamonds, hand-crafted gold jewellery, rice and processed foods, etc. Foreign currency is released in exchange of Rupee. Most students prefer soft-term educational loans from banks to partly support their studies abroad. It is another matter that several PSU banks have unhappy experience with repayment of loans by some of these students.

Unfortunately, India, which itself has a potential to emerge as a global powerhouse of knowledge and education, is paying little attention to convert the capability into a real big business opportunity after information technology (IT). Few Indian universities have international students' department. Although a few private institutions from three southern states, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and a fewer still from Maharashtra and Orissa have lately joined hands to hold education road-shows in the west Asian countries and also in south-east Asia with excellent response, this can at best be termed as a 'small-scale enterprise.'

This justifies the reason why the ministry of human resource development should pay serious attention to formulation of a strong and comprehensive policy that will encourage 'education and selling' on an international scale by Indian institutions and universities, in both public and private sectors. Most Indian institutes do not lack quality teachers. What they lack is a proper infrastructure for learning as well as for extra-curricular activities. The library facilities need to be revamped. The dorms and guest rooms should be clean and attractive. Unless the government makes special grants to some of the chosen institutes, those generally fund-starved educational institutes may not able to raise their campus facilities to compete with their international rivals. At the next stage, the HRD ministry or a government-sponsored independent body of top educationists and professionals should grade these institutes for the public knowledge and fixation of fees, etc by them.

Like China, India faces a big opportunity to convert education into a big global business to its advantage to ultimately sell its products and services, including culture. With India offering a big market to companies across the world, the benefiting countries would very much like to understand the psychology of Indian consumers, their preferences and prejudices and the challenges and opportunities in the local market place. Giant multinational companies from East Asia such as LG, Samsung, Daewoo, Mitsubishi and Itochu send every year a good number of their management trainees and junior management executives to India for the study of Indian consumer behaviour. Powered by a well-crafted government education policy for international students and active marketing by Indian missions abroad, Indian universities and institutes too can formulate attractive packages for students across the world. It will also help slow down the passage of overseas-bound Indian students. (IPA Service)