Coventry University has received approval to establish a new campus in India¡¯s Gift City, with plans to open to students next year.?

The?university will join two Australian institutions already open in the special economic zone and Queen¡¯s University Belfast, which has also recently received approval from Indian regulators.

The expansion comes in spite of the university¡¯s financial problems at home. In 2023, Coventry warned it?needed to make ?100 million in cuts over the next two years and, in December 2024, it?announced plans to make 92 full-time-equivalent academic staff roles redundant. The university has also appealed to the higher education regulator for permission to post its 2023-24 accounts after the December deadline. They have still not been published.

Universities commonly work with private partners to establish overseas campuses as part of profit-sharing arrangements, meaning they do not necessarily have to provide the capital funding for a new campus.

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One other English university, the University of Surrey, is known to have applied for permission to set up in Gift City. The zone is free of the tax regulations that govern the rest of India, making it an enticing location for foreign universities.?

According to Coventry, two courses will initially be on offer at the new campus, a BSc Honours in International Business Management and a BSc Honours in Business and Finance, with plans to add further courses in the future.?It hopes to see the first batch of students enrolled and learning in 2026.?

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Coventry has significantly expanded its transnational education portfolio in recent years, opening branch and ¡°branded¡± campuses in countries including Egypt, Morocco, China and Kazakhstan.

The approval was announced at the 13th UK-India Economic and Financial Dialogue in London, which was attended by British chancellor Rachel Reeves, the governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey and the Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

¡°The opportunity to make a real difference for the next generation of learners in India is one that we have grasped with both hands and will continue to do so,¡± said John Latham, vice-chancellor of Coventry.

¡°Gift City will bring the investment by our various partners into Coventry University branded or branch campuses to ?1 billion in just five years, which is a massive vote of confidence in us and the value of quality UK higher education.¡±

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Shri K. Rajaraman, chairperson of the International Financial Services Centres Authority ¨C the regulatory body that oversees Gift City ¨C said the approval ¡°stands as a testament to the strong and growing partnership between the United Kingdom and India for the development of India¡¯s maiden International Financial Services Centre in Gift City¡±.

¡°We are confident that Coventry University will make [a] meaningful contribution to the growing higher education ecosystem by offering high-quality programmes that are closely aligned with industry standards and emerging job market requirements.¡±

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com