As Borders Close, India’s Universities Must Step Up
With global visa crackdowns and limited liberal arts seats at home, students are caught in the middle, reconsidering aspirations once taken for granted.
In the somewhat secluded and leafy part of Bavdhan, West of Pune city, a pretty but temporary campus of the soon-to-launch Nayanta University will welcome its first graduate students this year.
The university is the outcome of a collective effort by members of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), who decided to move from thought and talk to action.
In the words of Chancellor Dr Naushad Forbes — also co-chairperson of the steam engineering major Forbes Marshall — there were several conversations among CII members about how India needs many more world-class institutions. And that, as a group of CII members, they should come together to build one themselves.
Second, he says, were specific conversations within the CII system about setting up an independent institution that would maintain a close connection with CII and operate under an MoU with it.
Third, and most importantly, he says, is the development focus: a compelling vision of engaging with the deep-rooted problems we see around us, and involving students and faculty in solving them, making a real difference.
A standout facet of Nayanta’s programme is its emphasis on internships. It will actively involve students in internships with industry, non-profits, and government — across all three sectors.
“Every student who comes out of the university should respect those three sectors and see them as being part of the solution and development process of India,” says Dr Forbes.
Nayanta is unique in as much as it is a direct industry initiative, coupled with a fairly strong dose of ideological emphasis on what students should be. Presumably, even arriving at a starting consensus wasn’t easy.
Its launch couldn’t have come at a better time.
Visa Chaos And The Liberal Arts Dilemma
Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of students are now in limbo following visa crackdowns in the United States, Canada, the UK, and Australia.
Among the four, the US has been the most extreme and unpredictable, putting F-1 and M-1 visas on hold and even threatening, at one point, to expel all international students at Harvard.
In my conversations with parents over time, and with one fairly sought-after university, there are perhaps 5,000 to 6,000 humanities seats in India that young and mostly affluent students seriously consider before opting to go abroad.
To put figures in context, just in the US, over 330,000 Indian students were enrolled last year — a 23% rise from the previous year.
Canada drew 137,000 students in 2024, though that marked a 41% drop from 233,000 in 2023.
The UK and Australia each hosted a little over 100,000 Indian students.
Of course, these are not all liberal arts students—they include engineering and other disciplines—but it’s clear that close to three-quarters of a million students are headed abroad somewhere, including Germany and Russia.
And while Germany and Russia are opening their doors wider, the “big four” are slamming them shut.
Back home, it’s often — but not always — a toss-up between heading to, say, Ashoka University or going to the US.
That decision is often shaped by both parental ambitions and the peer pressure students face to study abroad.
From what I could gather, the broad list of serious Indian alternatives includes Flame University (also near Pune), Ashoka (near Delhi), OP Jindal University, Krea University (two hours north of Chennai), St. Stephen’s College (Delhi), Shiv Nadar University (Delhi), Azim Premji University (Bangalore), and St. Xavier’s College (Mumbai), among others.
There are, of course, more.
But this is an illustrative list. All have strong liberal arts and humanities courses extending to law on offer.
You could contrast this with GD Birla’s Birla Institute of Technology and Science or BITS Pilani set up in the 1960s.
Even without an international student visa crisis, there is a considerable shortage of high-quality universities, particularly in the humanities.
Edtech Implodes, Universities Endure
If you look back at the last decade, however, billions of dollars have been invested in edtech companies and courses, creating a glut of supply and a forced demand for supplementary skills that were not really needed, or only marginally so in many cases.
Almost all edtech companies have self-imploded, and many continue to do so as we speak.
Of course, anyone observing the phenomenon from the outside could have predicted this: an ugly display of venture capital (VC)–funded excess that left VCs stung, parents poorer, and mostly K-12 students none the wiser.
What’s interesting is that when you look at the most sought-after universities among the newer lot, all of them have been set up or nurtured by business leaders.
Perhaps not a surprise.
Ashoka was led by successful venture capitalists and entrepreneurs Ashish Dhawan and Sanjeev Bikhchandani.
Krea’s origins go back to the 1970s, with the founding of the IFMR Society by Narayan Vaghul, former ICICI Bank Chairman and founder.
FLAME University was founded by legendary Mumbai stockbroker Nemish Shah, along with Vallabh Bhansali and Manish Chokhani—all part of Enam Securities.
Azim Premji and Shiv Nadar are self-evident: both are technology tycoons from the IT services sector, though Premji’s philanthropic and institutional footprint is much broader in physical scale, reach, and ambition.
FLAME and Ashoka were founded in 2014, Krea University in 2018, Shiv Nadar University in 2011, and Azim Premji University in 2010. OP Jindal University, named after OP Jindal, father of Naveen Jindal who runs Jindal Steel & Power, started in 2009..
Don’t Build New, Fix The Great Old
So it does appear, looking back, that there was a confluence of intent—a shared desire to contribute to the liberal arts space over the last decade—among those who could afford to do so, and around the same time.
Nayanta is perhaps a further-evolved Phase II of that same intent—an effort by industry leaders to fill a critical learning gap, now coming to life in 2025 or the decade ahead.
To pick up on Dr Forbes’ statement, India surely needs many more world-class universities.
But India should also consider rejuvenating its once-grand institutions—like Elphinstone College in Mumbai—possibly by handing over their operations to the Ashokas and Nayantas of today, rather than letting them wither away in their current form.
The legislative architecture for such a handover may not exist yet, but we’ve managed far more complex reforms before.
The incentive is simple, students will stay back and also help fund and further grow our own universities as opposed to funding overseas ones.
To return to the Nayanta model: this is a promising opportunity for young Indians to gain a deeper understanding of the country’s challenges and opportunities.
The internship model is now being actively adopted by more and more institutions. We’re also seeing new evolutions in course curricula, backed by high-quality teaching talent, across these emerging universities.
Now, it’s up to our bright, globally aware young minds to carry this vision forward. And maybe, just maybe, give overseas education a pass—at least for now.
