INSIDE INDIA'S GREAT HIGHER ED EXPERIMENT

Following a new policy, global universities are establishing campuses in India. Who will it benefit?

- Neha Bhatt

Tucked into the landscaped lanes of Gurugram's 80-acre International Tech Park, rubbing shoulders with the world's tech giants in the estate's tall glass towers, is an unlikely name: the University of Southampton, Delhi.

The institution, with the lush green Aravali hills serving as the backdrop, is the British university's second offshore campus after Malaysia. Inside, the atmosphere is more collegiate than corporate: students hunched over laptops in cheerful cushioned booths, the hum of a coffee machine, faculty preparing the conference hall for lectures, and prospective students dropping in to inquire about enrolment.

The university opened its doors to the first cohort of 150 students just last month. With induction week wrapped up, the students have bonded over a freshers’ ball, and rolled into employability workshops with industry leaders and alumni mentors. Spread over multiple levels, the campus offers sports and dining facilities within the tech park, with accommodation for residential students a short drive away.

Nearly a thousand kilometres to the west, in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), the emerging business hub near Ahmedabad, Australia’s Deakin University and University of Wollongong, which opened last year, have just welcomed their second cohort of students.

These global institutions establishing branches in the country marks a major shift in India’s higher education. The push comes from the National Education Policy—2020, which aims to internationalise higher education and attract more foreign universities. India’s University Grants Commission (UGC) foreign campus guidelines, a framework to regulate and facilitate their establishment, gave the green signal in 2023.