University 'excited' over Indian campus plan

Lancaster University's vice-chancellor Prof Simon Guy (front right) joined Sir Keir Starmer and Narendra Modi in Mumbai

Lancaster University has said it is "tremendously excited" to be among a number of UK universities opening campuses in India after the prime minister made the announcement during his first trade mission to the country.

Lancaster already has campuses in Germany, Ghana, Malaysia, Indonesia and China.

Professor Simon Guy, who was on the trade mission in his role as pro-vice-chancellor for global affairs at Lancaster University, said India was "moving at a pace that we can't find anywhere else in the world".

"There is a massive demand for high-quality university education."

India aimed to be the third largest economy by 2028 and Prof Guy told BBC Radio Lancashire that they wanted to be "part of the success of India and obviously take some of that success back for the UK".

The university, which opened in 1964, has about 16,000 students at its Lancaster campus.

Its Indian campus will be based at Bengaluru - formerly known as Bangalore - in southern India and could open in September 2026.

Undergraduate degrees will be offered in accounting and finance, management, computer science and data science, with postgraduate studies planned for the future.

'Widen access'

"One of the considerations for a student at any university now is 'what's my degree going to be worth?' and that's tied up with the reputation of the university," Prof Guy said.

"The reputational value of a Lancaster degree is only going to be accentuated by our developing global network of campuses."

He said he hoped there would be opportunities for students in the UK and abroad to visit the different campuses.

"Our aim all the time is for a positive financial return but that is not the only value that we're looking for in developing these campuses.

"We're genuinely trying to widen access globally. We're trying to build platforms for research. We're trying to capacity build in the countries that we operate in."