The Dispatch
India’s Global Branch Campus
With India open to international branch campuses, new players are experimenting to see what works.
By Gauri Kohli
"Students who are willing to pay premium rates to study abroad are generally unwilling to pay the same price for a local branch."
“Universities that can offer a stimulating academic environment along with competitive remuneration will be better positioned.”
In Brief
- Top-ranked global universities have launched the first real test of India's National Education Policy promise: delivering a full foreign education experience on Indian soil with unprecedented autonomy.
- Success depends on solving key challenges: balancing dual regulatory paths (UGC vs. GIFT City), setting affordable fees for the price-sensitive market, and carefully replicating the home campus's academic culture and standards.
- To ensure longevity, international institutions must look beyond policy intent; stability of regulations and consistent execution are vital, alongside integrating campuses into national research and industry priorities.
When Deakin University and the University of Wollongong opened campuses in Gujarat’s GIFT City in 2024, it marked the first real test of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020’s key promise: inviting top-ranked global universities with unprecedented autonomy. After years of cautious pilots and shifting rules, international branch campuses (IBCs) are now trying to deliver a full foreign education experience on Indian soil.
But experts warn success will depend on three hurdles: navigating dual regulations, setting tuition students can afford and replicating the academic culture of the home campus.
The policy tightrope
The immediate task for any foreign university entering India is navigating the country’s bifurcated regulatory landscape. There’s the standard, compliance-driven University Grants Commission (UGC) route, or the “more liberal and commercially flexible” GIFT City framework, as described by Dr Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General of the Association of Indian Universities. Each has its own advantages, UGC with reach and credibility and GIFT City with flexibility.
The first two institutions opted to start in GIFT City, while other universities are exploring the broader UGC route, reflecting varied approaches to entering India. This choice highlights the different appeals of the two routes; GIFT City offers an option with commercial flexibility, while the UGC framework provides a nationwide remit already attracting 15 takers. “So far, the UGC has approved about 15 universities, and more are on the way,” says Dr Mittal.
Dr Jason E. Lane, Co-Director of C-BERT, a US-based research hub on transnational higher education, particularly IBCs, notes this signals a priority for a “clearer regulatory regime and special provisions that offer greater predictability,” adding that “most institutions, particularly those with limited previous engagement in India, will lean toward a more phased approach until autonomy is proven in practice.”
He adds that “while recent frameworks promise academic and financial autonomy, multiple layers of approval and uncertainty remain about consistent implementation.”
Experts note universities are taking a cautious, phased approach, with Dr Lane emphasising that the question is less policy intent than execution.
“The NEP 2020 signaled a clear intent to welcome top international universities and in a way that responded to shortcomings of similar previous policy efforts. The question now is execution. If the rules around autonomy, visas, and intellectual property are implemented consistently, it could be transformative,” adds Dr Lane, who is also a professor at the University of Illinois.
“But until institutions see that predictability in action, along with evidence of clear student demand, most will remain cautious.”
This regulatory tightrope intersects immediately with the challenge of pricing. While student demand for international education delivered locally is sustained and intense, price sensitivity remains non-negotiable. Dr Lane cautions that “students who are willing to pay premium rates to study abroad are generally unwilling to pay the same price for a local branch. Several US and Australian campuses have closed after pricing themselves out of the market,” he says.
The market consensus is clear: foreign universities must keep fees “reasonable for the Indian market.” Dr Mittal agrees, “If the fees are too high, they risk losing a large segment of students.”
Ravneet Pawha, Vice President (Global Engagement) and CEO (South Asia) at Deakin University, affirms that while their tuition reflects “global quality,” scholarships and financial aid are crucial to broaden access. Crucially, the premium price point will only be justified when institutions prove their stability and deliver “clear, proven strong career outcomes.”
Replicating academic quality
Maintaining academic quality and the popularity of the parent foreign university is one of the most difficult operational hurdles for an IBC. This demands a delicate balance of leveraging local talent while ensuring the home institution’s academic ethos remains intact.
Dr Lane highlights that the most successful IBCs, such as NYU Abu Dhabi and Duke Kunshan University, prioritised “seconding faculty and administrators from the main campus” in the early stages to establish the organisational culture and quality standards. Institutions that rely too heavily on local hires from the outset risk a disconnect in quality and buy-in back at the home campus.
Over time, the share of locally recruited faculty grows, but many institutions reinforce alignment by bringing those hires to the home campus for orientation or short-term residencies.
The current operational strategy in India for some of these IBCs, as described by Pawha, involves a strategic mix: “academics from India who are extremely conversant” are complemented by Deakin faculty teaching on a “fly-in/fly-off basis.” Dr Mittal underscores the practical necessity of offering “compensation above what local universities typically pay” and providing incentives like research grants and clear career pathways to retain top Indian talent.
“Universities that can offer a stimulating academic environment along with competitive remuneration will be better positioned to attract and retain high-quality faculty, which is vital for sustaining global standards in India,” she tells QS Insights Magazine.
For an IBC to survive, it must clearly differentiate itself from India’s well-established private universities. The core value proposition is straightforward: an IBC degree is “identical in quality and recognition” to the one awarded overseas.
“Unlike private universities that often depend on partnerships or credit-transfer models, branch campuses follow the same curriculum, academic standards, and assessment methods as their home campuses,” adds Dr Mittal.
Pawha points to Deakin’s emphasis on “hands-on, project-driven learning, practical assessment, and employability-skilling integration” within the campus culture.
Dr Lane notes that most IBCs focus on teaching first, expanding into research only later or with "major government backing.” Success here depends on foreign institutions adapting to India’s rapid transition in research infrastructure, leveraging the strong STEM talent pool and industry-academia linkages, particularly in applied technology sectors.
Global lessons
IBCs, especially the fully independent model favoured by the NEP, face intrinsic financial and political risks, including high setup costs and the threat of regulatory shifts. Dr Lane advises incoming universities to build in protections like “teach-out agreements or diversified revenue streams” and to enter the market slowly.
Positioning India’s emerging IBC landscape globally offers critical lessons. The experience of Gulf states taught that “clarity and stability of regulations matter more than incentives.
Successful models in China and Malaysia demonstrated that longevity comes from “integrating branch campuses into national or local priorities like research, industry partnerships, and capacity-building.”
Finally, global markets prove that price sensitivity is key; models that successfully aligned fees with local conditions saw stronger growth.
Experts note that GIFT City provides an early example of regulatory clarity in practice, alongside the UGC framework. The IBC experiment is underway, but the final outcome depends on the consistency of India’s dual policy environment, across both UGC and GIFT City.