New Delhi: The upcoming campus of University of Southampton in India will set up its fee structure “recognising the overall landscape” in the country, and offer scholarships both on the basis of merit and need, Professor Andrew Atherton, vice-president (International and Engagement) of the university, said in conversation with ThePrint Thursday.
The UK-based University of Southampton, among the top 100 universities in QS World University Rankings, will become the first international university to set up a campus in India under the University Grants Commission (Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India) Regulations, 2023, notified in November last year.
The Centre last month granted permission to the university to establish a campus in Gurugram (Delhi-NCR).
The UGC regulations are in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which envisions that “top universities in the world will be facilitated to operate in India”.
While UGC regulations provide autonomy to foreign universities to decide their fee structures, Atherton said the university is well aware of and sensitive to the existing fee structure in India.
“We will set the fee recognising the overall landscape in India. It’ll be a lower fee than if students come to the Southampton campus in the UK. Obviously, we’re world class, among the top 100 universities. So, it will still be a significant investment in students’ future and education. But then we won’t be at the same level as the UK campus,” he said.
“It will be less than the fee students will pay if they go to the UK or go overseas to another country like Australia or the US or Canada as well,” he reiterated.
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10-year plan
Atherton said the university has an “ambitious” 10-year plan for its India campus, which they are aiming to open in August next year.
The university will start offering four undergraduate and two postgraduate programmes in disciplines including business management, computer science, accounting and finance.
“And then, every year for 10 years, we will introduce new undergraduate and postgraduate courses. So by the end of that 10-year period, there will be over 30 different courses across the full subject range that we offer here in the UK, in Southampton,” he explained.
Atherton said students at the Delhi-NCR campus of the university will receive exactly the same degree/certificate as those in the UK campus.
“We want the experience and feel of the campus in India to be the same as if a student or a member of staff was either to study or work at the same equivalent campus in the UK. So that it doesn’t feel different because the location is different,” he said.
The university plans to enroll 5,000-5,500 students at its India campus in the initial 10 years, starting with 150-200 students in the first year.
“We’ll start with a much smaller number, about 150-200 students in the first year, and then grow from there. So obviously, over that period, we’ll be expanding and growing the campus so it can provide world-class facilities for those students,” he added.
The university will launch its official website in October, detailing its admission process which will be on a par with UK standards.
The university will also hire faculty and staff globally, for diversity. “We will have faculty from all over the world. We want to create a diverse, multinational environment with a diverse, multinational faculty, and also, over time, increasing mobility of students from our campuses in the UK to India, and also from India to the UK. So we do want this to feel international as a campus, and definitely some faculty will be Indian,” Atherton said.
The university is expecting to attract students from all over the world.
“We very much want to attract students from South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, who feel it’s closer and more accessible to come to India rather than go to the UK. I also think there will be students from the UK and Europe and North America, who are fascinated and intrigued and interested in India and find the opportunity to be able to study really compelling,” he added.
Need-based & merit-based scholarships
According to Atherton, the university recognises the socio-economic status of India and its campus here will offer a wide range of scholarships to students.
“We’ve committed that we will be investing a significant amount of the tuition fees and revenues that the campus has into scholarships, and in very broad terms,” he said.
The scholarships will be provided both on the basis of merit and need.
“While the brightest and best students will receive very favourable scholarships to study at University of Southampton, Delhi-NCR, we also recognise that there’s a broad range of affordability in India … There are very good students from families that have maybe lower incomes, more folks also enabling talented young people from families that don’t necessarily have the income to be able to fully afford the tuition fees themselves … (such students will) receive scholarships as well. We should be offering opportunities to them to come and study at the campus in Delhi-NCR,” Atherton said.
‘Need to grow capacity in India for world class education’
Atherton said the university’s decision to set up a campus in India was natural as they see a huge opportunity to engage with the talent pool in the nation.
He explained that there is a “real need” to grow capacity in India for world class education to respond to the increasing demand for such education.
“If you look at the gross enrollment ratio, the number of school-leavers going to university, if you look at the desire to invest in your own or your children’s education, all three of those are growing so quickly and expanding and improving so quickly in India, that the fundamental challenge that India has is you’ve got very bright, very good young people leaving school and wanting to go to the best possible universities anywhere in India or internationally,” he said.
“And you have many wonderful universities in India. But the pace of growth and the pace of expansion of demand means that there is more than enough room, and more than enough space, not just for Southampton, but for other universities as well,” he added.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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