UGC notifies regulations for foreign varsities to set up India campus

Close on the heels of Australia’s Western Sydney University announcing plans to establish an independent campus in Bangalore, the University Grant Commission (UGC) on Tuesday notified regulations permitting foreign universities ranked among the world’s top 500 to set up branch campuses in India, decide their admission process, fee structure, and also repatriate funds to their parent campuses.

cEach foreign university can set up more than one campus in India. However, they shall make a separate application for each proposed campus to the commission.

The guidelines were notified almost 10 months after the draft was made public for feedback. Based on the inputs, the final regulations have been tweaked.

For instance, the final rules mandate that foreign universities should ensure that international faculty appointed to teach at the Indian campuses stay in the country for at least a semester.

Also, the final rules have increased the time period for the standing committee to process applications from 45 days to 60 days. The recommendations of the committee should be placed before the UGC in 60 days, as opposed to 45 days in the draft regulations.