Assessing regional city readiness for hybrid transnational education in India

India’s post-NEP higher-education framework has created formal pathways for foreign campuses and cross-border academic collaboration, but emerging transnational education provision remains concentrated in metropolitan and special-zone locations. This article examines whether hybrid TNE can provide a regionally embedded form of international education in Indian regional cities. It uses a qualitative comparative policy analysis based on secondary evidence and applies a city-readiness framework to Nagpur and Jabalpur. The findings suggest that Nagpur offers a stronger basis for exploring broader, multi-sectoral collaboration, while Jabalpur offers a narrower basis for discipline-specific collaboration. Neither city, however, can presently be treated as ready because programme-level demand, delivery capacity, affordability, regulatory feasibility and employer participation remain unresolved. The article argues that local delivery alone does not ensure regional value or talent retention; these depend on links with credible institutions, employers and professional opportunities. It therefore supports city- and programme-specific readiness assessment rather than uniform geographical expansion of hybrid TNE.