> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://edcom-research.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Foreign Universities Have Arrived in India. Still, why are 1.25 million students choosing abroad for higher education? - URL: https://edcom-research.ghost.io/foreign-universities-have-arrived-in-india-still-why-are-1-25-million-students-choosing-abroad-for-higher-education/ - Published: 2026-10-13T20:46:36.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-13T20:46:36.000Z - Author: Akshara J Menon *What official data says about branch campuses, student outflow, and the distance between the two.* *Edcom Research Desk, Akshara J Menon,* October 2026, 8 min read --- India’s first foreign university approved by UGC opened in Gurugram in August 2025\. The theory behind opening a foreign university in india was simple- having an foreign university in india should decrease the student outbound ratio . Yet, Ministry of External Affairs records **12,54,**013 Indian students enrolled in higher education abroad. One of the reason why students choose an abroad degree is the quality of education. The main lag in the theory is that even tough the degree is from a reputable foreign institute it doesn’t guarantee you an exposure oversees and a stable income job. *A branch campus can import the degree. It cannot import the visa* | **12.54 lakhIndian students in higher education abroad** *MEA data tabled in Parliament, Dec 2025* | **5Foreign universities holding UGC Letters of Approval** *Ministry of Education / Lok Sabha, Jun–Aug 2026* | **6.26 lakhDepartures for study in 2025, down 31% from 9.08 lakh in 2023** *Ministry of Education, Rajya Sabha, 2026 (Bureau of Immigration data)* | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Why the government opened the gates? The UGC’s 2023 regulation let ranked top 500 foreign institutes or with outstanding expertise in a field, set up wholly owned campuses in India. The reason behind this set up was that the government could lower cost and make India a study destination. In August 2026 the Ministry told the Lok Sabha that qualifications from these institutes are treated as equivalent to an Indian degree, with no separate equivalence is needed. The scale of the imbalance explains the need to set up such institutes in India. NITI Aayog's December 2025 policy brief depicts outbound students at over 13 lakh in 2024, against roughly 50,000 foreign students in India in 2021–22, about 26 outbound for every inbound on those rounded figures. **The Approval Pipeline: Where It Actually Stands** | **Stage** | **Count** | | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Letters of Approval (final UGC clearance) | 5: Southampton, Liverpool, Bristol, York, UNSW | | Letters of Intent issued | 16, to 15 institutions (Australia, Italy, US, UK) | | GIFT City (IFSCA route, separate regulator) | 4 registered (Deakin, Wollongong, Queen's Belfast, Coventry); 5 cleared per a later ministry statement | *Source: Ministry of Education, Lok Sabha reply, Lok Sabha / Rajya Sabha replies.* A handful of international universities have already launched operations in India, starting with small initial cohorts: Deakin University kicked off its GIFT City campus in July 2024 with 41 students according to official parliamentary records, followed by the University of Southampton in Gurugram, which enrolled around 120 students for its August 2025 debut. More recently, UNSW Bengaluru welcomed roughly 200 students as classes began on August 10, 2026, while the University of Bristol opened its Mumbai campus a month later on September 10, aiming for up to 250 students in its first year and 2,500 over five years, though its final opening-day turnout remains unconfirmed. **What They Charge, and What They Teach** | **Campus** | **Programme** | **Tuition (official or campus-listed)** | | ----------------------------- | -------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Liverpool, Bengaluru | UG, 3 years | ₹11.5 lakh/yr domestic; ₹13 lakh/yr international (campus prospectus); 30 seats per programme in year one | | Southampton, Delhi (Gurugram) | UG, 3 years | about ₹13.2–13.9 lakh/yr (aggregator listings of campus fees) | | Southampton, Delhi (Gurugram) | MSc, 1 year | ₹16.17–23.1 lakh (aggregator listings) | | Deakin, GIFT City | Master's, 18 months | AUD 39,600 total (campus-listed, via aggregator) | | Southampton, UK | MSc Accounting and Finance | £19,000 home / £36,300 overseas (university website) | Though tuition is lower than at the parent campus, it remains steep: a three-year degree at Liverpool's Bengaluru campus costs ₹34.5 lakh in tuition alone. Initial course offerings heavily favor business, computing, data, economics, and finance aligning with focus on, computer science, and cybersecurity. Meanwhile, Southampton intends to introduce more than 30 programs over the next decade, covering fields like health and law, though these remain prospective for now. **Where the 12.54 Lakh Actually Go** | **Destination** | **Indian students (MEA, 2025)** | **Share of 12.54 lakh** | | -------------------- | ------------------------------- | ----------------------- | | Canada | 4,27,085 | 34.1% | | United States | 2,55,247 | 20.4% | | United Kingdom | 1,73,190 | 13.8% | | Australia | 1,38,579 | 11.1% | | Germany | 49,483 | 3.9% | | Russia | \~27,000 | 2.2% | | Kyrgyzstan / Georgia | \~16,500 / \~16,000 | 1.3% each | **Annual Outflow of Indian Students Departing for Higher Education (BoI / Ministry of Home Affairs)** | **Year** | **Departures for higher study** | | -------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | | 2019 | 5.86 lakh | | 2022 | 7.50 lakh | | 2023 | 9.08 lakh (earlier replies gave 8.92 lakh and 8,94,783) | | 2024 | 7.70 lakh | | 2025 | 6.26 lakh | Outbound student numbers have dropped from their 2023 high—down 15% in 2024 and another 19% in 2025—though overall departures are still about 7% higher than where they were back in 2019\. The total number of Indian students enrolled abroad fell from 13.36 lakh to 12.54 lakh (a 6.1% drop), marking the first real decline in three years. The Ministry does point out that these numbers come from visa categories and verbal answers at airport immigration, so they are solid estimates rather than exact tallies. **The Scale Gap** There is no central government report on total enrollment across foreign branch campuses yet. Going by what individual universities report, first-year cohorts range anywhere from 40 to 250 students per campus. Even if you added up every campus and assumed 1,000 to 2,000 students in total, that represents barely: - **0.08% to 0.16%** of the 12.54 lakh Indian students currently studying abroad - **0.16% to 0.32%** of the 6.26 lakh who left the country in 2025 The decline in departures actually started in 2024, long before foreign campuses had any real intake to speak of. The timing lines up much better with policy tightening in popular destination countries—like Canada’s study permit caps, the UK banning most student dependents in early 2024, and general visa uncertainty in the US. India's new branch campuses simply aren't big enough yet to move the needle in either direction. **Why Students Are Still Heading Overseas** If brand prestige and lower costs were all that mattered, getting a foreign degree at home for roughly two-thirds the price would be a no-brainer. But that hasn't happened, mostly for four key reasons: - **Capacity:** Five approved campuses enrolling tens or hundreds of students can't make a dent in a student flow measured in lakhs. - **Limited options:** Most initial offerings focus heavily on business and computer science. If you want a specialized, medical, or research-heavy degree, you won't find an equivalent locally just yet. - **Post-study work rights:** For a lot of families, studying abroad is an investment in a work visa. Schemes like the UK's Graduate Route (which offers up to two years of work rights) or the US OPT program (which had nearly 3 lakh students enrolled in 2024/25) depend entirely on physical presence in the host country, not just the name on the diploma. The UK trimming its post-study work window to 18 months starting in 2027 shows just how crucial—and fragile—these pathways are. - **Price point:** At ₹11.5 lakh to ₹23 lakh a year, local campuses are still far too expensive for most middle-class households without taking on heavy loan debt. Even a NITI Aayog policy brief suggested letting in universities outside the global top 500 and allowing "campus-within-a-campus" setups—a quiet admission that the current framework is a bit too rigid. **What This Means for the Next Decade** For students planning careers in India, in business, data or finance, a branch campus now offers a foreign degree at a fraction of the overseas cost, and the Ministry has confirmed its equivalence. For students whose plan depends on working abroad, or on subjects India's campuses do not yet teach, the parent campus remains the only route. The honest reading is that foreign campuses are an addition to Indian higher education, not yet a substitute for going abroad. They will need thousands of seats, a wider subject range and lower prices before they register in the outflow data. **Sources** - Ministry of Education statements and Lok Sabha / Rajya Sabha replies (Dec 2024; Feb 2026; 3 Aug 2026) - Ministry of Education Letters of Approval announcement, 9 Jun 2026 (All India Radio / PIB coverage) - Ministry of External Affairs data tabled in Parliament, Dec 2025 (via University World News and press reports) - NITI Aayog, *Internationalisation of Higher Education in India: Policy Brief*, Dec 2025 - UGC FHEI Regulations 2023 and fhei.ugc.ac.in - Institute of International Education, Open Doors 2025 - University of Liverpool Bengaluru prospectus 2026–27 - University of Southampton fee pages - University of Bristol press release, 10 Sep 2026 - UK Home Office / Times Higher Education / ICEF Monitor on the Graduate Route © 2026 Edcom. All rights reserved. For permissions and media enquiries, contact [advisory@edcom.in](mailto:advisory@edcom.in)