Australia’s next branch campus in India will operate exclusively in the block teaching mode embraced by its mothership.

Victoria University (VU) says the block model is the “innovation” that attracted its partner and campus joint owner, Mumbai-based edtech firm Erulearning Solutions.

The campus – known as Victoria University, Delhi National Capital Region – is scheduled to open in July. It is likely to occupy six floors of a refurbished tower block in Gurgaon, a satellite city of New Delhi.

Gurgaon, officially known as Gurugram, is a renowned technology, finance and hospitality hub and hosts offices of many of the world’s top management consultancies, along with the major regional headquarters of one of Australia’s biggest banks.

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The campus will deliver VU-badged undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in areas including business, cybersecurity, applied information technology and sports management. VU expects initial enrolments of a few hundred, rising to thousands within five years.

Chancellor Steve Bracks said the region had changed substantially since he visited 20 years ago as Victorian premier, signing a sister state agreement and funding a Bollywood movie to entice Indian tourists.

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Speaking ahead of a commemorative ceremony in Gurgaon, Bracks stressed the “enormous growth” in the subcontinent. “India’s growing [at] about 7 per cent per annum. It’s doubling every 10 years…in terms of gross national product. Delhi is 34 million people [with a] large middle class. There’s so much demand here for institutions such as us, and that demand has not been met.”

Australian universities’ appetite for foreign branch campuses has surged in recent years, as host countries rolled out more accommodating policies and Canberra imposed onshore limits on international enrolments.

India has been a particular focal point following the 2020 finalisation of its National Education Policy. Deakin and Wollongong universities opened the country’s first foreign branch campuses in Gujarat in mid-2024, and Western Sydney University has received approval to establish its own outpost. The University of Western Australia plans campuses in , and at least one other Australian university has similar aspirations.

More announcements are likely in the coming days amid visits to India by Australian education minister Jason Clare, assistant international education minister Julian Hill and numerous vice-chancellors.

Pathway arrangements – where foreigners undertake at least 40 per cent of their studies offshore before completing their degrees in Australia – are increasingly popular features of offshore branch campuses, partly because pathway students do not count towards onshore international enrolment quotas. Vice-chancellor Adam Shoemaker said that although VU’s new campus would have pathway arrangements, they could flow either way.

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“We’re not saying it’s a pathway to Australia. We’re saying it’s a bilateral gateway in both directions. It’s as important to have Australians come here as to have Indians go there.”

Shoemaker said Australian students had shown interest in Gurgaon. “India is becoming incredibly well known for…start-ups, unicorns and so on. That’s a huge opportunity…and there may be cultural fits as well.”

VU plans to retrofit the Gurgaon building to resemble its tower block in Melbourne, where flexible learning spaces and the absence of lecture theatres are considered vital ingredients in the block teaching approach. Under the block model, subjects are taught one at a time – rather than simultaneously – in small classes over periods of about four weeks.

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VU credits the approach for a turnaround in its fortunes, with a marked improvement in student success contributing to its bottom line. Pass rates for its higher education students rocketed from 75 per cent in 2017, a year before the university started phasing in the block model, to 91 per cent by 2024. Although attrition rates remain high, VU’s higher education enrolments increased 16 per cent between 2022 and 2024.

The biggest institution globally to teach in block mode, its approach has been adapted by Southern Cross University in northern New South Wales, Sunway College in Kuala Lumpur, the National School of Business Management in Colombo and the Hanoi School of Business and Management in Vietnam.

Shoemaker said he expected the block model to work well in Gurgaon, where – like at VU’s home campus – a substantial proportion of students were likely to be the first in their families to go to university. He said the new campus should provide a fresh opportunity to test whether the approach worked as effectively online as face to face.

“Our partners are very experienced in online and hybrid. Who knows where that will go in the future? The point is, how do you scale success? That’s an Indian question to answer. It’s not just us – they are the experts, too.”

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john.ross@timeshighereducation.com