In the foreseeable future, India intends to make a strategic shift—from serving as a global supplier of talent to becoming a “magnet” that attracts gifted students from all parts of the world.
In late December 2025, NITI, India’s leading research center for public policy studies, published a report on the internationalization of higher education in India. Many experts have already described it as one of the most comprehensive policy documents on university education produced in the Global South. The report addresses the challenge of overcoming India’s excessive dependence on outward student mobility and transitioning toward a more sustainable and inclusive model of “internationalization at home.” In particular, it notes that the country currently sends more than 1.3 million students abroad each year, while admitting only around 50,000 international applicants—creating a clear imbalance described as economically and strategically unacceptable.
According to the authors, India possesses a number of advantages for building an effective internationalization system that benefits the country. Education at Indian universities is relatively affordable compared to institutions in the Global North. Education is widely delivered in English at a broadly accessible, moderate level. National universities’ programs in information and communication technologies, engineering, management, and several other professional fields enjoy well-deserved international recognition. Finally, the inclusion of indigenous traditional knowledge in educational programs is cited as an additional strength, enriching them culturally and interdisciplinarily.
At the same time, India still lags behind the world’s leading education hubs in areas such as research collaboration, global positioning, academic and research infrastructure, and student exchange.
India’s engagement in global higher education processes remains fragmented—driven largely by unstructured mobility and only weakly aligned with national objectives. Today, India’s task is framed as building a nationally grounded, globally oriented education model based on research, coordinated partnerships, opportunities for continued study after completion of the current educational cycle, competitive scholarships, and effective mechanisms for mobility and recognition of academic achievements.
This model is intended to transform India into a hub for attracting talent, supporting its aspiration to join the ranks of the world’s developed powers by 2047.
At the first stage, implementation of the model should enable the admission of up to 100,000 international students by 2030. Centers of excellence, oriented toward a specific partner country, will be established at 54 of the country’s principal public universities, with dedicated funding and staffing.
By September 2026, India is expected to open at least 15 international campuses—branch campuses of globally recognized universities (for example, the University of Aberdeen campus in Powai, Mumbai, which has already announced on its website that it will begin admitting students and start classes in September 2026). Such campuses are intended to retain Indian talent, attract faculty from around the world, and deliver international educational programs at significantly lower cost.
At the same time, the report’s authors note that the current situation in a number of Global North countries—traditional recipients of Indian students, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia—driven by tighter visa regimes, geopolitical uncertainty, and rising expenses for international students, may facilitate the implementation of India’s new “in-country” strategy for the internationalization of higher education.
Another proposed innovation involves flexible models that would allow foreign universities to operate within Indian higher education institutions through lease-based arrangements or partnership agreements. Such models are expected to strengthen the financial sustainability of local universities, promote the diffusion of global quality standards beyond metropolitan institutions, and support the establishment of specialized international education centers in areas such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, climate science, and STEM (also complemented by the arts, medicine, and management). These centers take on particular significance in light of India’s new, largest-ever free trade agreement with the European Union.
These models would be built on an ecosystem principle, similar to GIFT City (India’s first global financial center in the state of Gujarat—an economic zone featuring world-class “smart city” infrastructure, tax incentives, and simplified procedures for starting a business). Implementing the strategy will require a range of regulatory changes, including simplifying visa and mobility rules for students and faculty, adopting a broader approach to admissions to foreign universities beyond narrow global ranking criteria, digitizing enrollment processes, and addressing taxation issues and the regulation of foreign contributions.
Funding for the new strategy is expected to come from a specially established national sovereign fund, Bharat Vidya Kosh, with a total volume of USD 10 billion. The fund will be formed through donations from the diaspora and philanthropic organizations, to be matched in equal measure by subsidies from the Government of India. The fund’s resources will be used in conjunction with global scholarship programs, joint research funds, and the resources of the planned United Association of Indian Alumni.
It is emphasized that the successful implementation of the proposed strategy can be achieved only through coordinated action by the government, regulatory bodies, public universities, and the rapidly growing private sector. Under these conditions, India’s higher-education internationalization strategy would help achieve the goal of curbing brain drain, reducing annual spending on overseas education (estimated at USD 30–40 billion), and creating high-productivity domestic jobs in research, innovation, and educational technologies. Overall, the strategy is intended to position India not merely as a participant, but as a country directly shaping the global landscape of higher education.
