FRAME WORK: Students at the Gurugram campus of the University of Southampton. Courtesy British Council
Under the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, top-ranked foreign universities can now set up satellite campuses in India. The first such campuses of British universities — Southampton at Gurugram and Queen’s University Belfast at GIFT City, Gujarat — started functioning in 2025 and four more have just started taking in students. Rittika Chanda Parruck (see pic), director of Education India, British Council, unpacks for The Telegraph reader campus specifics, the degrees they grant and the advantages for
Indian students.
Q How many such campuses are projected to open and by when?
We have 10 campuses that have got letters of intent to open, which is the licence to open that the University Grants Commission or UGC gives. So in the next two years, 10 campuses will be operational. All these universities have global standing because the rules stipulate that they have to be among the top 500 universities in the world. Moreover, they have higher subject rankings and many of them have customised courses that meet local requirements. So the one in Bengaluru offers life science courses while the one in Mumbai is looking at creative industries, economies and interesting stuff around that.
Q What has the response been like?
The campuses that are running have more than 140 students in their first cohort, which is a very good start. These campuses offer very specific courses, maybe a handful of them. Roughly six or seven courses each.
Q Are the professors coming from the mother university or are you recruiting here?
The recruitment process is conducted by the home university and the process mirrors how they would recruit a professor back on the home campus. So in terms of standards of qualification and experience, they’re agnostic to where these professors come from. They are not directly from the universities, except in some cases. The pedagogical style of these universities are distinctly their own — the way they assess, give assignments, the way they would facilitate independent learning. The people teaching on these campuses will be delivering the course in exactly the same format they would have on the home campus. The classroom experience is comparable even though a case study context may be different.
Q So what is the advantage of joining an Indian campus?
First of all, it’s going to cost less. Secondly, India sends more graduate students overseas than undergraduate ones. Much of the reticence is because most parents are not comfortable with sending their 18-year-old unsupervised into the world of freedom overnight. We are offering undergraduate courses in India.
Q What about fees?
Something like ₹17 lakh per year. The same thing will cost you more than ₹20 lakh in the UK.
Q These campuses, are they tie-ups with any other college or university in India?
By rule, they cannot be. These are all independent campuses. They have to be just that — the international branch campus. And the degree at the end of it will be a UK degree.
Q Are there any scholarships?
There are. Each university is making an effort to offer scholarships to attract talented young people who may not have the means and making sure that there is equitable access to the campuses.
Q So, say something like the Commonwealth Scholarships, will these be applicable to these universities?
Scholarships that are targeted at the UK will be eligible only for UK campuses at the moment. It is too early to say more. But once these campuses are up and running, we will have a better sense.
Q Will these campuses be tying up with Indian institutes for dual or joint degrees?
That is covered under a different regulation, which is called the Foreign Collaboration Regulation. The Branch Campus Regulation is different. So these are the two major regulations that have come out after the NEP 2020. One allows international branch campuses to be set up and the other allows foreign collaboration to happen so that they are able to offer joint and global degrees.