University of Western Australia to start first academic programme in India next year

The University of Western Australia (UWA) is going to set up two Indian campuses — Chennai and Mumbai — with the university targeting Aug 2026 to start its first academic programme from the Chennai campus, reported TOI.

Vice-chancellor Amit Chakma told TOI in an exclusive interaction that the two campuses will function as a single UWA entity in India and award full degrees of the Australian university.

According to university officials, the Chennai campus will initially be technology-focused, while the Mumbai campus will be more busine-ss-oriented. Academic offerings will begin at the undergraduate level, with postgr-aduate programmes to be added soon after. “We are wo-rking against some very str-ict timeline to see whether we can start our first programme from Aug 2026,” Chakma said on Wednesday. “The Chennai campus initially would be more technology focused... and eventually we’ll build it up. The Mumbai campus probably would be more business centric,” he said. Both campuses will initially function from leased facilities, retrofitted for academic use.


While Australia’s Deakin University and University of Wollongong have already started operations, Victoria University, Western Sydney University and La Trobe University have received permissions for the same.

“India is a fascinating story unfolding,” said Chakma, adding that UWA sees strong long-term potential for India to emerge as a regional education hub. The entry of multiple international campuses reflects this shift.

(With inputs from TOI)