India top destination for foreign, domestic educational donations: OECD

A recent study released by the Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society (CAPS) indicates that Asia receives 29 per cent of the lion's share of private donations made globally for education with most of it centering around advanced degrees.

On a global scale, Asia received donations of $608 million compared to $592 million for Africa and $386 million for Latin America. 

India ranks at the top of a list of 10 beneficiaries of educational support from both domestic and foreign sources according to surveys conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation (OECD) with $290 million in aid, almost three times more than Brazil which ranks fourth on the same list. 

The findings made by CAPS on a study that involved almost 800 students as well as scholarship programmes across China, India and the Philippines shows that scholarships don't just have significant impact in the short term but also result in transformational changes specifically enabling change by transforming careers through advanced educational training. 

Ruth Shapiro chief executive for CAPS, based in Hong Kong, said, "Of all the philanthropic funding ways, scholarships are the low hanging fruit, and corporate houses in India - Tatas, Godrejs and Ambanis all support it. Still, the bigger question driving the research was is it a good way to spend money?” 

"We found that it absolutely was a good way to spend money, not just for the recipients but also for their families their countries and their industries," Shapiro said. Here's why: One Indian scholar has a career plan to spend a couple of years in the US before coming back to work for the government. Another wants to work for a US construction firm before returning to set up a contracting firm in India, and another alumna has set up a teacher training enterprise to thrust education innovation into the mainstream, the report shows.

The JN Tata Endowment for the Higher Education of Indians or JNTE, was established in 1892 and part of the CAPS study selects 120 scholars every year annually who are then awarded not grants but interest-free loans, which they are obliged to pay back when they graduate and receive employment, in keeping with the spirit of the Tata group founder Jamsetji Tata's vision of "self-help". 

Dr Bipin Ghanghurde, an orthopedic surgeon, from India who went to study specialised micro-surgery of the hands at Ogori Daiichi General Hospital in Yamaguchi in Japan said that this was a small town Japan but an innovation hub for his area of specialty. JNTE gave him a grant to cover his travel expenses and a one-time bonus. He is now one of four surgeons in Mumbai with this level of speciality.

Chinese platform Zhejiang Xinhua Compassion Education Foundation, China (XHEF)  which was set up in 2007 to fund university subsidies as well as high school scholarships has disbursed around $71 million for 55,000 students and can mean the difference between staying at home and getting an education. One student from an impoverished village in the Northwest of China found it a strain for the family to support the education of two children at the same time and said that the XHEF subsidy made all the difference, the CAPS report says. 

“For JNTE, the idea is to allow the best and the brightest to pursue the highest level of specialisation in a field of their choice," Shapiro points out.

More specifically these JNTE scholarships are given to students pursuing advanced qualifications in applied sciences, pure sciences, management studies, art and architecture, law and social sciences with the schools and institutes being targeted going beyond the Harvards and the Oxfords. 

According to Shapiro, 60 per cent of the scholars and alumni consequently report a desire to give back to their communities not to mention increasing the level of output per capita between 3 per cent and 6 per cent for every one year increase in average education.

Meanwhile, the attention around private universities in India gathers momentum. Ashoka University, a private liberal arts institution funded entirely by donations was set up in 2014. 

A few months ago former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan and leading business figures such as Anand Mahindra and Sajjan Jindal came together to pledge support to create Krea University, a liberal arts college, and more recently, the Reliance Foundation announced that it would be setting up the Jio Institute in Navi Mumbai.