Passage to India

The problem of flooding the Indian market with opportunistic offerings from overseas universities is an increasingly serious one (THES, July 5).

The more general issues of transfer of educational technology, and cultural imperialism, are well-known. The additional commercial pressures on western universities are adding to the problem.

One remedy is for the parties to arrange any project in the spirit of a joint venture, preferably within an existing operation with a track record both in the geographic region and within the specialist educational domain.

We have found that such partnerships bring rich rewards, not least of which are the genuine gains in understanding of the cultures within the projects.

VENKATA RATNAM, SWAPAN CHAUDHURI, PIKAY RICHARDSON, TUDOR RICHARDS Indian Research & Development Unit, Manchester Business School