As many as 15 foreign universities will set up campuses in India in the current academic year, especially in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields, said minister for education Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday. While giving nod to the University of Liverpool to open its campus in Bengaluru, the minister said that one of the primary recommendations of National Education Poilcy (NEP) 2020 “is rooted, futuristic and global education, and the aim is to produce global citizens.”
The University of Liverpool is the second foreign university to be issued a Letter of Intent (LoI) under the UGC (University Grants Commission) Regulations. Last August, the University of Southampton was allowed to open its Gurugram campus in August this year. Even though Australia-based Deakin University was the first foreign university to set up an independent campus in India, its operations are governed under the IFSCA regulations, which are tailored for financial institutions like GIFT City where the campus is situated. Australia’s University of Wollongong too opened its India campus in Gujarat’s GIFT City in November last year.
The University of Liverpool’s Bengaluru campus, which will start operations in August 2026, is set to offer undergraduate and postgraduate programs in business management, accounting and finance, computer science, biomedical sciences, and a distinctive game design course.
The minister also urged the institutions to focus on areas like research and development (R&D) and innovations, and highlighted that the University of Liverpool is going to focus on STEM-related research leading to innovation.
Recently, four more global universities have received government’s nod to open campus in India. This includes Victoria University (Australia), Western Sydney University (Australia), Illinois Institute of Technology (US) and Istituto Europeo di Design (Italy). At least six more applications are under the review of Liberalized Degree Campuses (LDC) committee.
Experts said that the global universities are queuing up to establish a base in India as there’s a huge demand for high-quality tertiary education at reasonable price points. Many of these foreign univerisites will be offering programmes in India at 40-50% lower than the study abroad options. In addition, the visa restrictions and stricter immigration rules in countries such as US, Canada, and the UK will aid these institutes to attract students.