University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued 16 Letters of Intent (LoIs) to Foreign Higher Educational Institutions (FHEIs) from Australia, Italy, United Kingdom and the United States of America. UGC has issued LoIs to six FHEIs in Karnataka, six in Maharashtra, three in Delhi NCR and one in Tamil Nadu. Out of the six LoIs in Maharashtra, four FHEIs (University of York, University of Bristol, University of Aberdeen and Illinois Institute of Technology) have been given Letter of Approval to start academic operations in Mumbai. University of Southampton and University of New South Wales have already established their campuses in Gurugram and Bengaluru respectively.

IIT Madras, IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad have established their overseas campuses at Zanzibar in 2023, Abu Dhabi in 2024 and Dubai respectively in 2025. IIM Ahmedabad launched a one-year fulltime MBA programme in Dubai campus in September 2025, along with a General Management programme, for professionals across the Middle-East, Asia and Africa. The programme has 35 students. IIT Madras, opened its campus at Zanzibar in 2023 - 35 students have graduated with M Tech degrees in Data Science and AI and Ocean Structures so far. Over 100 students are in various BS programmes in Data Science and Chemical Process Engineering. IIT Delhi established its offshore campus in Abu Dhabi, UAE in 2024 with nine UG, PG and Doctoral courses. In the academic year 2025-26, the campus had 171 students.

Studying abroad is a matter of individual will and choice, which is contingent on a variety of factors, including affordability, access to finance, exposure to foreign societies and aptitude for particular branches of studies. As per information provided by the Bureau of Immigration (BoI), Ministry of Home Affairs, the number of Indians who disclosed their purpose of visit as STUDY/EDUCATION while going abroad from 2021 to 2025 is as below:

Year	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Number of Students	445580	752100	894758	760060	619264

The Government of India, including under National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) has undertaken several initiatives to ensure availability of high-quality education in the higher education, including through infrastructure upgradation of public funded educational institutions, accreditation of new institutions and courses which meet the criteria under National Accreditation Board, promotion of research & innovation and augmenting digital initiatives for accessibility. These initiatives have contributed to a wider pool of institutions and also in increasing the quality of educational facilities in the country.

In addition, University Grants Commission (UGC) has taken several initiatives to enhance quality of education, including financial support to HEIs, including issuing regulations for Joint/Dual/Twinning degree programmes, guidelines for Internship/Apprenticeship Embedded Degree Program, establishment of Research and Development Cells in HEIs, promoting the concept of Professor of Practice, accessibility guidelines and standards for Higher Educational Institutions and Universities, initiation of UTSAH Portal (Undertaking Transformative Strategies and Actions in Higher Education) to track achievements of NEP 2020, issuing Curriculum and Guidelines on Life Skills (Jeevan Kaushal) 2.0, launching of Malaviya Mission Teachers Training Programme (MMTTP) for continuous capacity building of faculties.

As an overall result, 52 Indian Institutions are now in the QS World University Ranking (QS WUR) 2027 which is India’s highest ever representation, marking an increase from 11 Indian institutions in QS WUR 2015. India is ranked 38^th position globally as per Global Innovation Index (2025). India is considered to be one of the largest startup ecosystems in the world (top 3) in scale, funding and unicorn count.

Further, to attract international students to India, the Ministry has launched the ‘Study in India’ scheme in 2018 with the aim of promoting India as a global study destination providing world-class education at affordable costs. An integral part of the programme is the Study in India (SII) portal, a one-stop destination for admission and visa applications for all incoming foreign students and acts as a gateway to the Indian higher education ecosystem.

There are 1,289 universities, 48,246 colleges and 15,221 stand-alone institutions in the country, of which 87 universities, 5,380 colleges and 2,426 stand-alone institutions are located in Maharashtra. Maharashtra is among the top seven states in the country in terms of student enrolment in higher education, with approximately 46.53 lakh students. Higher education ecosystem in Maharashtra has been significantly strengthened through digital integration, quality accreditation, online learning, institutional governance and financial support through initiatives such as Academic Bank of Credits (ABC), Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR), Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM), SAMARTH and PM Vidyalaxmi.

The Government has launched the third phase of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) in June 2023 in the form of Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM-USHA) for the period 2023-24 to 2025-26 with an outlay of Rs 12,926.10 crore, including the committed liabilities of the earlier phases of RUSA, to cater to the needs of educationally unserved/underserved areas. In Maharashtra, under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), a total of 144 projects, with an approved amount of Rs. 1,431.31 crore (central share: Rs. 863.37 crore), have been approved under various components of the Scheme.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Education, Dr Sukanta Majumdar, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

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