Who will lead foreign universities when they come to India?

Everyone is watching the various foreign universities setting up branch campuses in India following recent regulatory changes.

The initial buzz was all about which university received approval, where they would open a campus, what courses were being offered, how they would compete with India’s private universities, how their fees structure might differ from the home campus and whether students would be able to pay for an overseas degree without leaving India.

These questions are significant. But a quieter, more critical shift is being missed. As foreign universities move from India representation offices for recruitment and partnership objectives to the full campus model, they are creating jobs that barely existed in India a few years ago. I have been closely watching the branch campus space for its senior leadership appointments and governance models.

A new concept for India

A small India office can run on a lean team. The remit is usually clear and simple: recruit students, manage agents and partners, build relationships and help the home university understand the market. A branch campus is a different operational model entirely and a new concept in India.

It needs teams to run admissions, student support, finance, facilities, marketing, compliance, faculty hiring, industry links and day-to-day operations. It needs academic leaders who can protect standards and build credible programmes. It needs people who can deal with regulators, local partners, parents, employers and the overseas university’s leadership.

All these stakeholders want different things, and all these aspects need to be managed effectively and on time.

Opening a branch campus is only the first test. Making it academically credible, financially viable and locally trusted is the harder task. A foreign university cannot simply copy its home-campus model and drop it into Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai or GIFT City.

Indian students, parents, employers and regulators will judge it against the Indian higher education market. They will ask whether the degree is worth the fees, whether the faculty are of good quality, whether internships and jobs follow, whether student support is real and whether the campus has the authority to make decisions rather than waiting for approval from overseas. That is where the people running these campuses are important.

From representation to institution-building

The right person may not look like a conventional academic leader, and they may not come from a conventional university administration career.

They might have spent years working between Indian and overseas institutions, understanding partnerships, regulations, student recruitment, research links and government relations.

Or they may come from consulting, technology, financial services, corporate strategy or multinational operations, backgrounds where entering a new market, building teams and managing multiple stakeholders are familiar work.

In my view, it is not the industry printed on their CV that is relevant; it is whether they have the competencies, the right mindset and understanding to make an overseas university work in India.

It is whether they know what cannot be compromised and what must change to earn trust in a crowded, noisy and competitive market. A branch campus is not simply a market-entry project. It is an attempt to build a university that students, faculty, employers, parents and the public will trust.

Leadership, working together

Early leadership appointments suggest that international campuses in India are building teams in two ways. Academic leadership is often recruited from the parent university or international system while operational and commercial leadership is increasingly filled by India-based or India-origin professionals with international careers.

Academic leaders often titled ‘Provost’, ‘Rector’ or ‘Executive Dean’ are responsible for the curriculum, faculty, quality and academic direction. Alongside them sit operational leaders in the form of ‘Campus Directors’, ‘Chief Operating Officers’ or ‘Chief Business Officers’ who are responsible for finance, growth, facilities, admissions, marketing and student experience.

Designations differ from campus to campus. The important change is that academic leadership and operational leadership are being treated as separate but equally necessary jobs. That is an interesting change in the Indian higher education system and a more nuanced talent strategy.

The Indian higher education sector has many experienced university leaders. But in the early branch campus ecosystem, experience of transnational education appears to be especially valued. For an overseas university putting its global name on an Indian campus, that experience can reduce the risk of costly mistakes.

Questions universities should ask

The real test for a foreign campus in India lies not in its launch but in what happens over the next three to four years. Already there are questions about who the faculty are and whether they will be given room to shape programmes and research. Will students receive the same quality of support and academic experience the overseas brand promises?

There are also harder questions about partnerships. Where a foreign university works with an Indian or global education group, who controls the major decisions? Who bears the financial risk? Who decides when commercial pressure clashes with academic priorities? What is the exit strategy if progress doesn’t match projections?

These questions will shape the student experience and the reputation of the institution. The universities that address them well will build something durable. Those that do not may find that their overseas reputation does not automatically earn trust in India. Hence, the first generation of hybrid leadership becomes trailblazers.

However, the equation could change in five to 10 years – once the campuses are established, it might not require someone from the UK or Australia to oversee them. An optimal leader might emerge from the same ecosystem who by then becomes experienced in running an international campus in India, thus eventually creating a new Indian talent pool.

A small but valuable pool of people

People with the right experience for a branch campus TNE (transnational education) initiative are still scarce in this market. Someone who understands Indian higher education, overseas university systems, government relationships, partnership building, regulations and campus operations does not fit neatly into an old university job description, and there is no clear salary benchmark for that person either.

Universities may be tempted to hire cheaply or import someone from the home campus or assume that a strong corporate operator can learn the education side later. Each approach carries risk.

The work requires judgement that takes time to build. It requires knowing when to adapt to India and when not to, explaining India to an overseas leadership team without reducing it to a market report, and explaining overseas academic expectations to local partners without sounding rigid or detached.

That is why I will be watching the appointments as closely as the branch campus announcements. Will experienced international education professionals move into campus leadership? Will universities draw more heavily from corporate India? And will a clear career path emerge for people whose experience spans both worlds?

Opening a campus was never the end of the task. The success of foreign universities’ branch campuses in India will depend on more than approvals, buildings and brand names. It will depend on whether these institutions can find and properly support the people who know how to build a real university in India, not just launch one.

Dr Athulya Aravind is the regional director, South Asia and Japan, at Edinburgh Global, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom.

This article is a commentary. Commentary articles are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of University World News.