Studying abroad in Gujarat: Students’ GIFT City experience

Stay is expensive, local transportation practically non-existent and the campuses are akin to office buildings but GIFT City’s offshore campuses offer individual attention, international standards of teaching and networking opportunities

- Sheena Sachdeva

Kranali Shah, 26, drives from Ahmedabad to GIFT City, spending close to two hours daily on commute. Shah is pursuing a Masters in Business Analytics at Deakin University’s GIFT City campus where she is one of 10-12 students who travel daily from Ahmedabad.

While the programmes are offered by offshore campuses of international universities, outside the university building, the experience is more Gujarati than anything else. Students don’t live on university campuses or even in GIFT City itself, which is prohibitively expensive, but on its edges, Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad. Let alone diversity of nationality and culture, the majority of the 52 students enrolled in the two Australian university campuses in the city - Deakin and the University of Wollongong (UoW) - are from within Gujarat or neighbouring Maharashtra.

While the commute is a hassle and the stay difficult, they are more than made up for by the opportunities to “network”, say students. Passing CEOs, even of international companies, are often invited to deliver lectures and masterclasses. They might join students for meals and overtime helped by the low roll-strength, no doubt even start remembering their names. For students of industry-aligned professional programmes, these connections matter more.

Hailing from Mumbai, Mukesh Iyer, 26, highlighted that being at GIFT City affords them enviable networking opportunities. “The Australian and New Zealand COO would be walking to lunch with us. He would know the students by their names. This is something many students find fascinating and are proud of,” said Mukesh Iyer, 26. From Mumbai, Iyer is a student at UoW.

Careers360 visited Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT)-City to report on the first two foreign universities to set up offshore campuses in India.

Inside GIFT City