Deakin University plans foreign student intake, Australia immersion; set for second batch in GIFT City

Deakin University, one of the first foreign universities in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), has completed its first year in the country and is preparing the launch of its second batch. Ravneet Pawha, vice president (global engagement) and chief operating officer (South Asia), during a conversation, spoke about the new admission cycle, new courses, immersion programmes in Australia and more. Edited Excerpts:

The GIFT City campus was discussed in 2022-23 and you finally inaugurated it in 2024. Take us through what happened over that period.

Deakin's been in India for 30 years now. We set up our office in 1994, becoming the world's first foreign university to set up an office in India. In 2022, when the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City opened to international universities for offshore campuses, we started the discussions with the Indian government. In March 2023, we got the approval and within about a year, we launched the campus. We started our first batch in July 2024 and it has completed its first year. These students will get into placement season later this year; we are now recruiting for the second batch.

From ideation to execution, it took about 18 months. Soon after we launched the campus in GIFT City, we heard about the University Grant Commission (UGC) opening up to other foreign universities. But ours became the world's first foreign university to open a campus in India.

How has your experience been?

It's been exciting. It's very different because foreign and Indian universities teach differently. It has very different expectations of cultures, bringing the two countries together. We are also learning. This is Deakin's first international branch campus, so we are also doing this for the first time.

However, it is not just about teaching but about bringing the cultures together. It is about bringing the two countries closer. It is also about ensuring that the graduates are work-ready and are global citizens. Overall, it's been a great learning for us, and we believe we are on a strong trajectory.

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What regulations did you have to comply with to set up the campus?

Deakin is a self-regulated campus. We had to follow some regulations of the International Financial Services Centre Authorities (IFSCA), the regulatory body of GIFT City. However, we have developed our academic regulations ourselves. There was a committee in India that we had to present to regarding approved courses, methodology, pedagogy and content. The fee, entry requirements – all of these were Deakin University’s decision. We kept everything the way we would have for our onshore recruitment.

We felt that the compliance process was neither easy nor difficult. But it was quite timely. Both regulators at GIFT City and my university were extremely responsive. Else, it wouldn't have been possible for any university to set up its campus within 18 months.

What are the courses on offer and what’s your total enrollment? Where do the students come from?

We have two courses running currently – masters in business analytics and masters in cyber security. These are two full-time degree courses and have a total of 45 students. We offer the same content that we offer in Australia – 70% of the curriculum is taught by professors hired in India and 25-30% of it is moderated and supported by our visiting professors from Australia.

Further, we have students from all over the country. 40% of the students are largely from Gujarat and the remaining 60% are from Maharashtra. We also have some students from North and South India.

Are you taking any international students from South Asia or other countries?

No. We plan to start the international student intake from 2026.

How has the students' response been?

Deakin University GIFT City Campus opened with a capacity to accommodate 100 students, 50 per programme. To ensure that genuine, meritorious and ambitious Indian students access this transformative education resource, the eligibility standards have been put in place. As per the eligibility requirements and student interest the maiden batch got 45 top-notch students from all over India.

For masters in cyber security, students must have a technical degree. For this course, they come with an engineering degree and the admission process includes an interview. For business analytics, we take the Common Admission Test (CAT) score, English test score and conduct an interview.

For the second batch, we've received a good response. There's a lot of learning because it is new for the students as well. We will be implementing what we have learnt from the past year and from students' feedback.

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What was the recruitment criteria for faculty?

We followed the same criteria as at our Australia campus. We had given out advertisements, and interviews were held like we do it at our Australian campus. Around 40% of the new faculty have international experience and 30% fly in and out of Australia, depending on the course and time.

What new courses are in the pipeline?

We are thinking of launching new master's courses in the area of artificial intelligence and construction management. We plan to introduce them from 2026 onwards.

Why not undergraduate courses?

We are only looking at master’s courses for now. The reason for not introducing undergraduate programmes is that we feel GIFT City as a place would benefit postgraduate students. Working with industry is largely focused on postgraduation. Our campus is a vertical campus. But the city has access to industry within a radius of five kilometres and houses more than 200 organisations, which we can work closely with.

Deakin offers scholarships. How many students have received so far? What are the criteria?

We gave out two scholarships last year based on the economic requirements of students. However, this year we will be giving scholarships on merit. The process is still in progress for the coming cohort.

For this year, we aim to give eight to 10 students 25% scholarships. We have not finalised this yet. We may add more if there is a need. However, scholarships will be given to highly meritorious students.

More universities are setting up campuses in India. How do you see this impacting Deakin’s prospects here?

Deakin is a very strong brand. We have been in India for the longest period of time and understand India very well. We welcome the idea of more foreign universities here because it is always good to have more colleagues from different countries, and collaborative models can be established.

We feel that we have a place in the market, and we have the first-mover advantage and a strong, in-depth understanding of India.

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What is the curriculum like? Is there a foreign-immersion programme for students to study in Australia?

The master's programme is an 18-month course, including two two-month internship periods – so, approximately two years. We have core units which all students have to do and then we have electives. In all, students have to do 16 units. At the end, there is an internship. The first batch is currently working on projects largely from organisations within GIFT City. These are live projects that companies like KPMG, Ernst & Young and others operating out of GIFT City have shared with our students. These are not paid projects but give hands-on experience to students. After this, students will get into pre-placement or internship and then final placements in November.

For now, there is no foreign immersion programme. However, from the 2025-26 batch, we are planning to introduce an immersion programme in which students can go to Australia for a short period of time . Students will be given the option for immersion in October.

How do you foresee this partnership in education between the two countries developing?

There will be more consistent engagement with India. Broadly, I think the education sector will be leading this engagement. In February, an India-Australia roadmap was announced where the Australian government had highlighted education and skills as “superhighway” sectors, high-accelerated growth areas for bilateral engagements.

India needs high-quality education and Australia can offer it. There is a lot that Australia can offer.