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UWA India education plan: The University of Western Australia (UWA) plans to establish two campuses in India—one in Chennai focusing on STEM subjects and the other in Mumbai concentrating on business-related courses, according to Guy Littlefair, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Education and Student Experience.
Regarding the decision to establish two campuses in India, unlike most foreign universities that typically open just one, Littlefair, who was in Delhi last week, said, “We recognise as a university that different cities in India require different courses.”
“Mumbai, a large metropolis, is the financial hub of India. So, therefore, (it will) focus on business, also around entrepreneurship and enterprise more broadly. In the south, in Chennai, (there will be) more of a focus on STEM, on engineering and technology, and on computer science,” he said.
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The University of Western Australia, Perth, which is ranked 77 in the QS World University Rankings, received a letter of intent from the University Grants Commission (UGC) in June to set up two campuses in India. The university aims to get these campuses running by August 2026.
Littlefair was part of a delegation to India representing the Group of Eight, which consists of Australia’s top research universities, including the University of Western Australia, the University of Sydney, and the University of Melbourne.
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He said their agenda included meeting government officials in Delhi and Mumbai, and looking at locations for their campuses in the country, besides meeting stakeholders to make a case for direct flights between India and Perth, the capital of Western Australia.
Elaborating on the UWA’s plans for its campuses in India, Littlefair said, “So, I think we have realised that…paying attention to what different regions in India would benefit most from in terms of what the University of Western Australia can deliver and engage with is an important part of what we are trying to accomplish.”
The university plans on “starting small” with a few hundred students in the first year of enrolment, building up to “several thousands of students in the seven to ten-year period”, with more than 10,000 students in time, according to Littlefair.
While the focus for now is on STEM and business courses, it plans to eventually include courses in the humanities, arts, health, and medicine. It will offer both undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
This will be the university’s first foreign campus, and Littlefair said India offers opportunity considering that “youth looking for higher education is continually growing”.
He said while Australia does well in terms of research outcomes, it does not do so well in terms of commercialisation of research and translation of research into products and services.
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“India, in contrast, is really fantastic at the development of intellectual property and taking intellectual property through the innovation ecosystem. So, we are hoping that we can engage to benefit not only students, but also benefit in terms of driving our research agenda for the benefit of Western Australia, and also the benefit of communities here in India,” he said.
He added that as time goes on, India could become an “international destination for students from the surrounding region”
Two Australian universities, University of Wollongong and Deakin University, have already set up campuses in Gujarat’s GIFT city so far.
As foreign universities seek to establish campuses for Indian students amidst visa-related restrictions in various countries, Littlefair, said a wise approach will be to focus on aspirational students. This support, he said, can extend to providing education for students in their own locations.
“The wise and sensible approach for prestigious, well-known, and well-rounded universities is to consider how we can support aspirational students to receive a high-quality education. While that includes the opportunity to travel to Australia and study, as time goes on, we also recognise that it is about providing an education for students where they are,” he said.
Asked about the impact of student visa-related caps or restrictions on universities in Australia, Littlefair said, “Australia has for some time been, and remains, a very popular destination for international students, and particularly for Indian students. Changes in government policy right across the world obviously do have positive effects, and can also have short-term effects which are not so positive for students.”
“But we are absolutely committed to providing great education for all international students who wish to come and study with us. We are very much looking forward to opening campuses here in India which will give other students the opportunity to receive a very high standard of education from UWA without the need to travel to Australia to experience that,” he said.
“We are very interested in attracting a diverse cohort of students to our campus and we are prepared to work with changes in government policy as required to accommodate those needs.”
Indian students constitute the second largest cohort of international students, after students from China, at the University of Western Australia. In 2024-25, till December, Australia granted the highest number of student visas to those from China, followed by India, data from the country’s Department of Home Affairs shows.
Australia is among the top five destination countries for Indian students. In recent years, countries, including Australia, have tightened requirements for student visas, or capped the number of international students in their countries.
Australia increased English language requirements for international students last year; it hiked the student visa processing fee last year, and again this year, with the amount now standing at AUD$2,000, up from AUD$710 before the two hikes.
The country has also imposed a cap of sorts on the number of new international students – 2,70,000 in 2025, and 2,95,000 in 2026, pointing to a need to manage overseas migration that surged post Covid-19. Institutions have specific international student allocations, and student visas are processed on a higher level of priority for 80 per cent of this allocation, slowing down after that.
