Foreign University Entry into India: Policy Opening, System Pressure, and Mode Choice in Transnational Higher Education

This paper examines how India’s post-National Education Policy 2020 reforms are reshaping foreign university entry strategies across selected Anglophone higher education systems. Drawing on comparative qualitative document analysis, it addresses three questions concerning India’s current policy landscape, the responses of universities from the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the USA, and the factors shaping their modes of engagement. The central argument is that India’s policy opening enables foreign university entry but does not determine its organisational form. Entry mode results from the interaction of host-country regulatory conditions, pressures within the university’s home system, and institution-specific capability and risk tolerance. The analysis identifies a differentiated spectrum spanning branch campuses, joint and dual degrees, pathways, research platforms, and selective entry. It contributes a policy-mediated mode-choice framework that treats foreign entry as an organisational choice rather than a binary outcome and offers implications for Indian policymakers and foreign universities evaluating alternative forms of engagement.