Weighing an Australian degree in India? What the new campuses charge, and what they cannot offer

Deakin University estimates the total course fee for its Master of Cyber Security (Professional) at A$39,600 for all 16 credit points at its GIFT City campus in Gujarat, for students starting in July 2027. For international students at Waurn Ponds in Geelong, its 2027 course page puts the first year alone, 8 credit points, at A$45,800. Deakin says graduates in India receive “the same Deakin University qualification and academic standards as Australia”. Price is the first thing an Australian degree in India changes. The second is access to Australia’s Temporary Graduate visa, which counts only study done in Australia.

By this magazine’s count, drawn from the universities’ own announcements and releases from India’s Ministry of Education, at least eight Australian universities now teach in India or have received in-principle approval to do so. The newest classes were due to begin on Monday 19 October at the University of Western Australia’s campus in Chennai, two weeks after the university announced final approval from India’s University Grants Commission.

From GIFT City to Chennai

Deakin and the University of Wollongong opened first, both in GIFT City, an international financial services centre at Gandhinagar. Deakin’s first students started classes on 8 July 2024, and Wollongong’s campus has been open since November 2024. Deakin’s courses there are master’s degrees in applied artificial intelligence, business analytics and cyber security; Wollongong’s cover business, computing and financial technology.

UNSW Sydney officially opened its campus at Embassy Manyata Business Park in Bengaluru at the end of July, with classes scheduled from 10 August in business, computational data science, computer science and cyber security. Victoria University’s Letter of Approval for Gurugram, in the Delhi National Capital Region, was welcomed by the two prime ministers, Anthony Albanese and Narendra Modi, in their Joint Statement of Thursday 9 July. The university’s first undergraduates started classes in late August, with postgraduates due from 28 September. The University of Western Australia opened in Andheri East, Mumbai, on Friday 18 September, ahead of Chennai.

Three more have received Letters of Intent, the commission’s in-principle approval. Flinders University, whose letter the same Joint Statement welcomed, says it will open in Bengaluru in early 2027 with degrees in business, computer science and information technology, a Master of Information Technology and an MBA; Austrade notes the opening depends on regulatory approvals. Western Sydney University said in July 2025 that its Greater Noida campus would teach from August 2026. It now gives 2027, and said in August that its planned master’s in sustainable water management was subject to the commission’s approval. La Trobe University received a letter for Bengaluru in July 2025, according to India’s Ministry of Education, with undergraduate courses proposed in business, computer science and public health.

What an Australian degree in India costs

Both GIFT City campuses set their fees in Australian dollars. For students starting in 2026, Wollongong lists A$27,900 as the total course fee for its Master of Financial Technology in India, a minimum of four trimesters full time. Its 2026 schedule for international students in Australia gives an indicative total of A$61,272 for the course of the same name, also four trimesters: more than twice as much. Its India page notes that fees change annually.

Victoria University charges in rupees. It lists ₹11 lakh (₹11,00,000) a year for domestic students in its three-year Bachelor of Data Science in Gurugram, and more than 30 of its first undergraduates received a scholarship worth up to ₹3 lakh (₹3,00,000) a year off tuition.

The same degree, on the universities’ account

UNSW says: “Students will receive the same UNSW degrees as graduates studying in Australia.” Wollongong says students in GIFT City earn the same Australian degree taught across its international campuses, and Deakin describes its GIFT City degrees as approved by India’s Ministry of Education. Flinders’ vice-chancellor, Colin Stirling, has said students in Bengaluru will graduate with the same academic standards that define a Flinders degree in Australia.

India has set terms of its own. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Monday 3 August, the Minister of State for Education, Dr Sukanta Majumdar, said the University Grants Commission’s rules for foreign campuses are designed to hold teaching in India to the standard of the parent campus abroad, and that qualifications awarded under them “shall be recognized and treated as equivalent” to those of Indian institutions, with no further equivalence needed. GIFT City’s campuses sit outside those rules; there, a 2023 Indian Finance Ministry notification leaves equivalence to the Association of Indian Universities or similar agencies.

The months that count

Some campuses offer a bridge. Victoria University’s Global Mobility Program lists three options: a semester exchange, an undergraduate transfer to Melbourne, or progression from a bachelor’s in India to postgraduate study in Melbourne, all “subject to academic requirements and availability”. Deakin offers immersion programs at its Australian campuses, and Western Sydney University says its students will have immersion opportunities in Sydney. Flinders says its campus will open exchange opportunities for Australian students.

The Temporary Graduate visa, which lets international students live, study and work in Australia after finishing their studies, is where the routes part. Home Affairs requires at least two academic years, or 92 weeks, in a course registered on CRICOS, the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students, completed over no less than 16 months while physically in Australia. A student who “studied solely at an overseas campus of an Australian educational institution” has not met that requirement. A course split between the two countries can still meet it if the Australian part reaches those thresholds.

Austrade and the federal Department of Education have set up a community of practice for universities establishing campuses in India, and the Joint Statement spoke of “the growing number of Australian university campuses operating in India or approved to do so”. At 2026 fees, Wollongong’s financial technology master’s in GIFT City costs less than half its Australian price. The months that count towards staying on in Australia are still counted only in Australia.