For Andrew Atherton, August has always been the calmest month in British academia. The long summer holidays linger, the weather is mild, and students drift back to campus slowly, almost lazily. For decades, he’s timed his annual rhythms around this quiet. Not this year. 

Atherton, vice-president for international engagement at the University of Southampton, spent the summer not in leafy Hampshire but in the dust and drizzle of Gurugram, overseeing Southampton’s new campus—the first British university to plant its flag on Indian soil.

Approval came in January 2024; by July 2025, lectures were already underway. “We put ourselves under a little bit of pressure,” he said, understating a year-and-a-half dash to build a university halfway across the world. 

But in a market that’s just opened up, speed is everything. Eight other British universities are already lining up their own Indian outposts. The Australians—Wollongong and Deakin—have even managed to sneak in early, running a year of classes in Gujarat’s Gift City.

The rush began with a single regulatory switch. In December 2023, the University Grants Commission (UGC)—the national regulator for higher education—announced that foreign universities could open local campuses and repatriate their profits—ensuring that the privilege is not exclusive to those tucked inside special economic zones like Gift City. Overnight, India’s $65-billion higher-education market became fair game.

Now, the race is on. Universities are scouting real estate, signing up local partners, and lobbying state governments eager to host them. For the states, these campuses promise bragging rights and a gloss of international sophistication. For the Centre, they promise something more pragmatic: a way to plug the leak of students—and money—flowing overseas. 

More than 1.8 million Indians now study abroad, and every tuition payment chips away at the rupee. The timing is awkwardly propitious: stricter immigration rules in the UK, Canada, and the US coincide with a weakening rupee. 

 Foreign universities, of course, smell the opportunity.