International universities expanding in India must go beyond global branding and regulatory approvals to build credible career pathways, mobility options and trusted local partnerships, delegates heard at Australian International Education Conference (AIEC) 2026.
“India is ready for TNE. India wants TNE,” said Vik Singh, trade and investment commissioner for Austrade in South Asia.
The challenge, speakers suggested, is whether overseas institutions are ready for India’s price-sensitive, employment-focused and operationally complex market.
The discussion formed part of Bringing global campuses to India: is the market really ready for TNE?, chaired by Steve Berridge, CEO of ECA Ventures.
The panel included Lawrence Pratchett, inaugural provost of Birkbeck, University of London’s Bengaluru campus and chief executive of UniReady Global; Caryn Nery, director of transnational education partnerships at Victoria University and IEAA TNE Network convener; and Singh.
The question is becoming increasingly urgent as overseas providers turn approvals into operating campuses.
The University of Liverpool has welcomed nearly 300 students to its Bengaluru campus, while the University of Western Australia has opened in Mumbai and secured approval for a Chennai campus.
The University of Colorado Denver is also planning to begin teaching in Hyderabad in 2027, subject to final University Grants Commission (UGC) approval, while Telangana is developing a Future City policy to attract overseas institutions.
Flinders University has announced plans for a Bengaluru campus, reflecting India’s growing importance to Australia’s education relationship as the latter’s onshore visa settings become more restrictive.
Yet the first wave of expansion has not settled whether international campuses can build a durable market.
Research by Rahul Choudaha, previously reported by The PIE, mapped 13 international universities admitting students across 14 Indian campuses in 2026/27, with modest initial cohorts and limited graduate-outcome data encouraging a wait-and-watch approach among families.
The research found that first-year undergraduate fees at the campuses examined were, on average, 115% higher than at selected leading Indian private universities, although they were around 36% of fees at their overseas parent campuses before scholarships.
India doesn’t want a scattering of MOUs that hang on the wall. It’s deeper partnerships that deliver
Vik Singh, Austrade
For Berridge, the sector is still waiting for proof of success at scale. He told delegates there were not yet “case studies of at-scale success” for international branch campuses in India.
For Pratchett, the policy opening has created opportunity, but not certainty. “The policy environment is quite fluid,” he said.
He said the UGC’s framework was stable at a high level, but that providers still had to navigate changing expectations around subjects, international faculty and delivery models.
Pratchett said the regulator appeared more interested in STEM provision than humanities and social sciences, while Singh highlighted unresolved questions around online learning, work-integrated learning and the treatment of international institutions within India’s higher education system.
Singh said state policy would shape the sector’s next phase, with providers needing to consider local incentives, infrastructure, tax treatment, commuting patterns and families’ purchasing power in each city.
That aligns with the wider push by states such as Telangana, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh to position international campuses within technology, research and urban-development strategies.
But a more open policy environment alone will not create demand.
“I’m not competing with UNSW or Liverpool down the road from me,” Pratchett said. “I’m competing with the local universities.”
That means international providers need to explain why their offer is different from a well-established Indian private university with local brand recognition, alumni networks and visible employer relationships.
An Emeritus survey published in October found that 68% of respondents were likely or extremely likely to consider a program offered in India by an international university.
However, interest does not establish willingness or ability to pay, particularly as a weaker rupee, rising overseas tuition and living costs, and uncertainty around immigration rules force families to examine the likely return on their investment more closely.
The attraction of an international qualification at home is also not simply about avoiding overseas study.
Oxford International’s latest mobility survey found that 81% of surveyed Indian study-abroad aspirants expected to return home after graduation, suggesting students can value global exposure while intending to build their careers in India.
Nery said aspirational TNE students often wanted an opportunity to study at their university’s home campus, whether through a semester abroad, transfer route or other form of mobility.
That expectation has become harder to meet as visa restrictions tighten in major destinations, she said, leaving universities to ensure their India-based offer has value in its own right.
The panel’s clearest consensus was that career outcomes would be decisive.
“There is a difference between employability and employment,” Singh said. “Employment is not the answer. Employability is the answer.”
He said university rankings could open doors, but families ultimately wanted to know which employers would hire graduates and what salaries they could expect.
Singh said Australian companies operating in India could help build talent pipelines, while universities needed to embed internships, work-integrated learning, career guidance and employer engagement from the beginning.
At Birkbeck Bengaluru, Pratchett said the university was involving employers through course advisory boards and engaging local venture capitalists to help students understand the city’s startup ecosystem.
The aim, he said, was to make students think about careers and the skills required for them from the start of their studies, rather than only when they began applying for jobs.
The discussion also underlined that a branch campus is only one route into India.
Nery pointed to models including the RMIT–BITS Pilani partnership and online postgraduate programs as examples of the range of options available to institutions.
The panel heard that, despite varying capital risk and mobility options, all models depend on local knowledge, credible partners and a clear proposition for students.
For Singh, the lesson was that expansion cannot be built on symbolic agreements alone. “India doesn’t want a scattering of MoUs that hang on the wall,” he said. “It’s deeper partnerships that deliver.”
