Queen’s University, Belfast set to open first offshore campus in Gujarat’s GIFT city
The academic session of the first UK university campus in India will commence in January 2026. It opened for online applications last week on January 30.
3 min read
After several visits to GIFT City, Professor Topping, who is the lead academic for the project, attended a virtual roundtable with industry leaders at GIFT City on Tuesday. (Express Image)For the first time, a university from the United Kingdom is set to open an offshore campus in India in the Gujarat International Finance-Tec (GIFT) City, after two universities from Australia — Deakin and the University of Wollongong — began operations there in the last academic year.
The 1845-founded Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) in Northern Ireland, UK, will set up its first international branch campus in GIFT City, which will be the largest in the smart city, spread over 145,000 square feet with a ten-floor building.
Another university from the UK, Coventry University, is also keen to open its international branch campus in GIFT City. It is awaiting in-principle approval from the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), university officials told The Indian Express.
As one of the oldest Universities in the UK, Queen’s University will open with 500 seats across seven Master’s programmes and already has plans for further expansion for PhD research and establishing itself in entrepreneurial and start-up sectors.
The academic session is to commence in January 2026. The university opened up for online applications last week on January 30.
“Initially, there will be five Master’s level programmes — Construction and Project Management, Business Analytics, Financial Analytics, Finance and Leadership for Sustainable Development. Two further programmes in September 2026 — MSc in Artificial Intelligence and MSc in Artificial Intelligence for Business — will be introduced,” Professor Margaret Topping, who is Pro Vice Chancellor for Global Engagement, told The Indian Express.
After several visits to GIFT City, Professor Topping, who is the lead academic for the project, attended a virtual roundtable with industry leaders at GIFT City on Tuesday.
With a fee structure of 15,000 pounds for a year (full programme), the University will be offering a wide range of scholarships along with “value-added options”.
“The faculty will be a blend of both the UK and India, and that will vary a little bit depending on the programme. We will use some flying faculty initially, but we will also very soon be going out to recruit the best talent from India and indeed from anywhere else in the world. We will be launching a faculty recruitment campaign very soon and with a very effective package so that we can ensure the best possible talent-delivering program on our campus in India. Also, the Dean of the campus will soon be appointed,” Prof Topping told this newspaper.
You May Like
Photos
