Two new reports by global education services organisation Acumen — Signals from K-12 and Signals from Employers — suggest institutions entering the market will increasingly be judged on graduate outcomes, industry integration and how effectively they embed themselves within India’s education and labour market.
The reports, based on responses from more than 100 employers and over 250 schools across India, arrive at a pivotal moment for the country’s transnational education ambitions, with several international higher education institutions now having received letters of intent or approval to establish campuses in India.
Among employers surveyed, only 16% described themselves as “highly familiar” with international branch campuses, while 41% said they were aware of the concept but not well informed. Nearly 68% believed IBCs could strengthen graduate employability through global pedagogy, industry-aligned curriculum and outcome-based learning models.
At the same time, the findings suggest employers are placing less emphasis on institutional branding and more on whether campuses can produce work-ready graduates.
“Credibility in India’s education market is earned through outcomes, not assumed through brand,” Sagar Bahadur, executive director – Asia and head of regional strategy at Acumen, told The PIE News.
“Whether it’s an employer assessing graduate hires or a school counsellor advising families, the question is no longer ‘which university is this?’ but ‘what happens to students after they graduate?’”
Around 82% of employers surveyed identified industry-aligned curriculum as the biggest factor influencing confidence in IBCs, while more than 70% said hiring decisions would depend more on workplace readiness than institutional reputation.
Artificial intelligence and data science emerged as the most in-demand areas among employers at 79%, followed by business and management at 54%, cybersecurity at 40%, and finance and fintech at 35%.
Meanwhile, 86% of employers said industry engagement should begin at the conceptualisation stage — including curriculum design, faculty quality and cohort development — rather than being limited to internships and final placements.
The findings reflect a wider trend across India’s emerging international campus landscape, with institutions increasingly prioritising employer partnerships and workforce-focused course design, as previously reported by The PIE, including at Illinois Institute of Technology’s planned Mumbai campus.
The K-12 report similarly pointed to growing engagement around international campuses in India, with nearly four in five schools reporting active enquiries and discussions around IBCs from students and parents.
Schools primarily associated IBCs with globally aspirational students unwilling to relocate overseas, alongside cost-sensitive families seeking international exposure without the full cost of studying abroad.
At the same time, schools appeared cautious about how quickly confidence around outcomes would develop. While 51% said it was still too early to assess employability outcomes, 48% said it was too early to confidently recommend IBCs to students and families.
Career support and graduate outcomes emerged as the strongest factors shaping school confidence, cited by 82% of respondents, followed by international faculty, mobility opportunities and global exposure at 74%.
The report also found that schools were looking beyond branding when assessing international campuses. Around 62% cited graduate outcomes and institutional recognition as the biggest factors slowing confidence in actively recommending IBCs.
However, around 80% of schools said they had not been meaningfully involved in discussions around fee benchmarking, course design, campus location, student services or campus life.
“The strongest point of convergence is around employability, but importantly, employability that is structurally embedded, not bolted on,” Bahadur said.
“Employers are calling for industry-aligned curriculum, real exposure, and mandatory internships. Schools are telling us very clearly that graduate outcomes and career support are the number one factor in whether they recommend an IBC to students and families.”
Employability has become increasingly central to India’s broader IBC conversation, with earlier reporting by The PIE finding that institutions entering the market were facing growing expectations around graduate outcomes, workforce readiness and return on investment for students.
Employers don’t just want to hire from IBCs at the end, they want to help shape programmes from the beginning. Schools don’t want to simply receive information, they want to be partners in the process
Sagar Bahadur, Acumen
The findings also come amid wider discussions around how India’s international campus ecosystem may evolve beyond its initial expansion phase under the National Education Policy 2020.
Speaking at a TNE conference hosted by Symbiosis International University last month, senior Indian education official Armstrong Pame said India’s push to attract international campuses was increasingly linked to innovation, skills development and expanding domestic access to higher education.
Pame said the government was looking at international institutions that could contribute to sectors such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, green energy and advanced manufacturing, while also helping students become more “job ready”.
“We want to get the best of the global universities to come to India so that the best of experiences comes along with them,” Pame said during the event, adding that the government was also identifying sectors where demand for specialised job training could be “humongous”.
Pame also suggested India’s internationalisation strategy was tied to employability concerns and reducing dependence on outbound mobility, arguing students should be able to access global education opportunities “at one-fourth of the cost staying home”.
At the same conference, higher education expert and former NIEPA vice chancellor N V Varghese cautioned against viewing international campuses as a solution to India’s higher education expansion goals, arguing that large numbers of seats already remain vacant across parts of the domestic system.
Varghese also raised concerns around increasing marketisation within higher education, arguing that international campuses risked legitimising a more commercially driven model centred on branding and student transactions rather than research and knowledge production.
“The question is whether we as a nation should look at the commodification of education,” he said, arguing higher education in India had historically been viewed as a “public merit good” rather than a consumer product.
“Essentially, what is happening is that the branch campuses legitimise this process,” he said. “You are creating a protected, profit-oriented market system.”
Varghese also suggested the current regulatory framework differed from earlier policy discussions around limiting entry to top-ranked institutions, after regulators broadened eligibility requirements in 2023.
“Expansion takes place on the transaction side, not the knowledge production side,” he said. “Many of these IBCs are not investing much in research.”
Bahadur said the next phase of India’s IBC development would depend less on institutional announcements and more on sustained engagement with schools and employers.
“A significant proportion of employers and schools report having had limited or no meaningful involvement in the establishment of IBCs,” he said. “In many cases, institutions have entered the market and announced themselves, rather than co-designing with the stakeholders they are intended to serve.
“Employers don’t just want to hire from IBCs at the end, they want to help shape programmes from the beginning. Schools don’t want to simply receive information, they want to be partners in the process. So the gap isn’t in curriculum quality or global brand, but in the depth, timing and authenticity of engagement.”
