Massachusetts state officials not happy with decision.
Amity University, one of the top private universities in India, is all set to expand its presence in the US. According to a report by Associated Press, the university is in the process of purchasing a campus in New York and has proposed to buy two more.
Amity is purchasing the 170-acre Long Island branch of St. John’s University in New York City and the deal is likely to complete in June 2017. Amity has paid $22 million to St. John’s University which is shifting its campus to a smaller site on Long Island.
The move has, however, irked state officials in Massachusetts who have raised concerns over the quality of education Amity will offer.
“We are very, very skeptical about this,” said Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey, who is asking the state’s Board of Higher Education to block the sale. “It’s hard to imagine that this outfit from overseas, which has never done any education work here in this country, is well-suited to provide any kind of education to these students,” he added.
Amity is aiming to attract students from abroad who want to study in the US and the university is trying to make research partnership with other colleges and it has plans to connect foreign students with their US counterparts.
“We have a global vision for education, a model of education which allows for student mobility, faculty collaboration and research collaboration,” Aseem Chauhan, Amity’s chancellor told Associated Press.
“We believe that the leaders of tomorrow will be those who have perspectives from different parts of the world,” he added.
Amity is entering the US while many traditional schools are forced to close down because of falling enrolment and several for-profit institutions are selling their schools in the wake of tight federal regulations.
Though several US colleges have opened their campuses in other countries, foreign universities usually have difficulties in starting their center in the US mainly due to the tight regulatory norms.
Amity’s efforts to make their presence in the US dates back to 2011 when the Indian university, along with six other colleges, entered a competition to open an engineering campus in New York City. But, it was Cornell University and a school in Israel ultimately that won the battle. In 2014 also Amity had applied to open a non-profit school in California, albeit unsuccessfully.
“The for-profit market is really wide open right now. An institution with a lot of resources might see this as a cheap opportunity to get a foothold in the industry,” said Kevin Kinser, a professor of education policy at Pennsylvania State University.
However, Amity will have to go through a series of regulatory procedures to successfully start its operations in the US. Massachusetts education officials have asked the university to submit more information about the proposal.
Apart from the approval of education officials, Amity requires approval from a US accreditor to start granting degrees. It will have to pass the screening by the US Department of Education to avail federal financial aid for its students.