A policy for allowing foreign universities setting up Indian campuses Premium

India seeks to establish itself as a global education hub amidst shifting international dynamics and increasing foreign campus presence.

Perhaps surprisingly, the talk about international higher education, on factors such as branch campuses, student mobility, degree franchising, and related issues has become big news in India. The country wants to be a major player. This heightened attention comes at a time when traditional destination countries are changing their approach to Indian students.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom has emerged as the most aggressive player in establishing physical presence in India, with the largest pipeline of branch campuses in the country. Several prestigious U.K. institutions—including Queen’s University Belfast, Bristol, Liverpool, York, Aberdeen, and Lancaster—have formally committed to opening Indian campuses, and the University of Southampton just opened campus in the Delhi region. Curiously, several of the main host countries are hoping to establish footholds in India and at the same time they are turning Indian students away.

It is in this context that two influential reports have recently appeared—Internationalisation of Higher Education in India: Potential and Policy Recommendations, from NITI Aayog and the U.K.’s International Education Strategy from the British Government, which must be critically assessed. The latter gained momentum as it followed a high profile visit of Keir Starmer and a group of British vice-chancellors to India last year, moving this niche topic to a wider discussion and policy relevance. India’s ambition to establish itself as an education hub by hosting foreign campuses reflects these new dynamics and the NITI Aayog is therefore, worth examining.

There has hardly been a more unstable period for higher education globally in the past century. For much of the Anglophone world, there is a strong reaction against immigration, largely because of populism and right-wing nationalism. The U.S. has created visa bottlenecks and routinely cancels visas. Other U.S. policies are similarly negative—such as charging $100,000 for some immigration categories. These and other policies are symptomatic of the Trump administration’s xenophobia and incoherence.

The U.K., Canada, and Australia are cutting back on the number of international students in country—preferring to educate them (and collect tuition fees) in their home countries in branch campuses and franchised degrees and twinning arrangements. Canadian international student numbers have declined to 700,000 from over 1 million in 2024. In the Netherlands, Germany, and other European countries there has been a reaction against offering English-medium degrees. Online degree programs are also popular—programs are offered globally, and tuition payments do not mean student mobility.

It is no surprise that all aspects of internationalisation—branch campuses, twinning, and many others are now priorities in a variety of new players in the Global South. Transnational higher education programme delivery through branch campuses are now strategic priorities for many countries in Asia. For instance, Malaysia has become a major higher education hub in Southeast Asia. Educity Iskandar (near Johor, Malaysia) has campuses of a half-dozen British universities, thus becoming a competitor for India. Another competitor is the UAE with around forty international branch campuses, including branches of Indian institutions such as Manipal, BITS Pilani, IIT Delhi, Symbiosis International University, and IIM Ahmedabad, among others.