African and Gulf nations, Thailand and Vietnam are among potential destinations for Indian universities to set up their offshore campuses, regulations for which are ready and will be announced in a month, according to UGC chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar. In an interview, Kumar said several countries are coming forward to provide infrastructure to Indian universities to set up campuses abroad and the University Grants Commission (UGC) will handhold the institutions in identifying the countries where they can set up their offshore campuses. “We have in India huge university ecosystem. There are outstanding universities, both in central government, state government funded and private universities. We want to encourage these varsities to set up their campuses abroad. Some countries where they are coming forward to provide the infrastructure to our universities to set up their campus. “We have countries where we have large Indian diaspora who want our campuses to come and provide education,” he said. Asked about the countries which have expressed interest in welcoming Indian universities, Kumar said “several African countries”.
“There is huge potential for setting up campuses in African countries. Thailand, Vietnam and few Gulf countries… there is immense interest and the opportunities are immense too. It is just that we have not had any enabling regulations so far,” he added. Several Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have been receiving requests from the Middle-East and South Asian countries to set up their campuses. While IIT Delhi is considering setting
up a campus in UAE, IIT Madras is exploring options in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Tanzania. IIT campuses are also in pipeline in Egypt, Thailand, Malaysia and the UK. “IITs are known as institutions of national importance, they function under IIT Council. It has its own rules and regulations under which they can set up their own campuses. Already some IITs are working on that,” he said.
