The expansion of British universities in India: A colonial callback

A major expansion of British universities is underway in India, and it is set to boost the UK economy by £50 million, but can such an agreement be deemed mutually beneficial?

Enabled by India’s National Education Policy (2020), British universities are beginning to open international branches in the country. The first was the University of Southampton, with other institutions such as the University of Bristol and the University of York set to follow. These branches will offer a very similar curriculum and academic standard to their UK counterpart and will produce an internationally recognised degree.

Partnerships like this distract from the larger underlying issue that UK universities are not financially secure, nor have they been in a long time

With higher education being the fifth largest service sector export in the UK, this is a very evident example of utilising universities as an economic tool. This has been a major function of universities and can provide significant benefits, such as being able to boost local and national GDP and providing a more educated, skilled, and connected workforce that can attract investment by creating a creative, research-oriented environment. However, it remains unclear as to whether universities ought to be perceived in this way. Universities can be a public good, with a core function of the sharing of knowledge. They ought to be valued as such, rather than as a method of temporary monetary gain.

The expansion into India is also a clear example of the UK’s dependency on foreign students and their income to uphold the current university industry. It is an unhealthy, even toxic, relationship, given that the fickle nature of geopolitical trends has a significant influence on the intake of international students. Partnerships like this distract from the larger underlying issue that UK universities are not financially secure, nor have they been in a long time, and no real moves have been made to rectify this. Instead of focusing on our own domestic issues and aiming to improve our own flawed education system, the Labour government has opted for a quick fix in a desperate bid to gain more money fast. It leaves our higher education institutions vulnerable.

Whilst at face value, the exchange seems mutually beneficial, this ignores the long-standing history of exploitation and colonialism between India and England. For the UK, this expansion is a smoking gun, with the plan being fundamentally rooted in economic benefits for the UK.

This is not to say that India is not also going to reap some benefits from this. They have a disproportionately high percentage of young people within their population, and this is not reflected in the number of higher education places. Therefore, the UK has capitalised on the ever-increasing demand.

For many, this could be seen as just another instance of the UK using India to further its own economic gain

The UK and India have a longstanding and complex relationship. Therefore, it only seems wise to be sceptical of any partnership between them, especially when it seems unequal. For many, this could be seen as just another instance of the UK using India to further its own economic gain, and whilst India may be getting some benefits from it, they are in no way equal. This move will position the UK as the country with the biggest influence in the higher education system of India: therein lies the issue.

With a curriculum that is mirrored from their English counterpart, these institutions in India will teach with a clear bias towards British values and priorities, thus ignoring the cultural nuances and contexts, whilst also sidelining the other important factors central to Indian culture, such as languages.

In the UK, there have been movements to decolonise our education system, but this has not been completed to any degree, and therefore, it seems we are once again pushing a colonial mindset upon India, whether this is intentional or not. Furthermore, it could be argued that, given the current political climate informed by the wave of anti-migration rhetoric and the harsher regulations of international students, this expansion is simply just another policy with the ulterior motive of lowering domestic migration figures.

This collaboration does not seem genuine – it has been explicitly stated on the GOV.UK website as an exercise of soft power. Therefore, whatever the intentions may be, this venture is bordering on neocolonial: Indian institutions are rarely allowed to reciprocate these partnerships. Ultimately, this seems like another example of UK cultural hegemony being promoted in the context of higher education, and a clear callback to colonial patterns of influence.