The University of Mumbai is looking into listing on the stock market, reports the FT. The institution needs funds to back new facilities and centres of excellence and faces a shortfall in state help.
This would be the first such move globally by a traditional university and would be revolutionary in India’s education system, which is not meeting demand for top talent in an economy expanding by an annual 9 per cent. Nonetheless, the institution is looking into various mechanisms to find the necessary cash, among which is the listing.
However, a float would need to overcome a range of obstacles: for example, under Indian law, education is not-for-profit and so would need a change in the statute books by the local government of Maharashtra state in order for the university to issue dividends, etc.
There might also be academic resistance to such a move. While for-profit universities exist – such as the University of Phoenix owned by Apollo, they have little in common with institutions focused on research and undergraduate teaching. Alan Gilbert, vice-chancellor of Manchester University, and a proponent of greater business involvement in education thinks that Mumbai’s move could be somewhat naive based on the “false view that a university is a business”.