Last month, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in India with a planeload of vice chancellors. The Indian and U.

K. governments announced that several U. K.

universities plan to open branch campuses in India. Some of them have already received University Grants Commission (UGC) approval, while others are in the early stages of the application process. The fact that Mr.

Starmer led this delegation can certainly speed up the regulatory approvals and establish these new campuses as legitimate ventures. However, it is worth analysing this initiative.

The need for branch campuses The recent changes in the India-U. K.

educational partnership are tied to the broader India-U. K. Vision 2035 and the recently signed India-U.

K. Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. Also, British higher education is undergoing an unprecedented financial crisis, created both by inadequate support from the Starmer government and by a decline in the number of international students going to the U.

K. and paying high fees. It is likely that some British universities are looking to a move to India as a way of earning income from Indians without importing students.

But will Indians want to study at a branch campus as a substitute for the “real thing”? Will the branches apply the same standards both for student performance and faculty quality in India as they do on their home campuses? Branch campuses do not always succeed. And when they fail, students are often left without alternatives.

In recent years, several international branch campuses faced significant setbacks. Texas A&M University closed its Qatar campus after two decades of operation.

In Europe, the University of Kent’s Brussels campus was shut down due to financial pressures. These developments reveal a growing fragility in the operation of international branch campuses where global uncertainties and local market realities challenge the sustainability of such ventures. This risk should be an eye-opener for India, where clear contingency frameworks are yet to be outlined.

One of the major gaps in current UGC regulations is the lack of a clear safety net for students, especially if a branch campus were to suddenly shut down. Just what is a branch campus? Is it a full academic institution transplanted from one country to another, with a campus, a variety of offerings, perhaps some focus on research, facilities for student services, and the like? Or is it a floor of an office complex offering a few specialised degree programmes deemed to be attractive to target audiences and taught by local faculty or professors from the home university who fly in for a few weeks or perhaps teach only on Zoom? Globally, there seem to be many more of the latter. Experts point out that building a “real” branch is expensive and time consuming.

Most “real” branch campuses around the world have been financed by governments or in some cases by property developers. For example, the campus of New York University in Abu Dhabi was built using funds from the UAE. Foreign universities are seldom willing to invest in actually building overseas campuses.

So, it is worth asking whether the British universities will be making significant investments to build their branches in India or whether they simply intend to leverage local partnerships and facilities. There is also the question of teaching. Will these branches provide full-time faculty from their home campuses? Experience shows that this is seldom the case.

As a result, these campuses have to rely primarily on local faculty. If that is the case, what then will distinguish these branch campuses from India’s emerging elite and semi-elite universities? Also, will the branches have a research mission? The vast majority of branch campuses worldwide are only teaching outposts, as building research capacity is expensive. Indeed, research has been a point of contention between the Chinese government and a number of the branch campuses in China — including British branches of Nottingham in Ningbo and Liverpool in Suzhou.

In India, the question is whether the branch campuses will be allowed to engage with the national research ecosystem by participating in the schemes of the Indian Council of Social Science Research or Department of Science and Technology or remain isolated teaching units. Their contribution to India’s research output and innovation metrics would be meaningful only if they are incentivised to undertake research collaborations and capacity-building. Balancing ambition and reality The ultimate value of foreign branch campuses will depend less on their brand and more on their ability to offer something not readily available in India.

If handled well, branch campuses can provide access for students as India expands higher education enrolments. They can provide useful examples of innovative government and management practices that may be relevant for India’s often sclerotic higher education system.

However, the absence of clear frameworks on accreditation and quality assurance leaves uncertainty about how such collaborations will align with national standards and protect student interests. The question of fee structures adds another layer of complexity because India’s many semi-elite and elite private universities already offer globally benchmarked programmes with international partnerships.

As India approaches an era of branch campuses, there are significant possibilities, but caveat emptor. Philip G. Altbach, Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Fellow, Center for International Higher Education, Boston College, U.

S. ; Eldho Mathews, Programme Officer (internationalisation) at the Kerala State Higher Education Council.