Flora Hamilton

1. Looking back at the evolution of India–UK higher education partnerships, what are the most significant shifts you have witnessed in the way institutions from both countries collaborate?

What has changed from traditional student mobility and academic linkages towards deeper, more strategic institutional partnerships?

Institutions across India and the UK have built deeper and more meaningful relationships in the last few years, driven by the India-UK Vision 2035. UK higher education institutions have become global leaders in transnational education (TNE) provision. The Government's International Education Strategy gives institutions further impetus to develop international partnerships. Meanwhile, India has gone through a remarkable transformation in its higher education sector under the National Education Policy, with an expansion to 1,200 universities, 50,000 colleges, 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), and 21 Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs).

Together, these developments have shifted the relationship from traditional student mobility towards partnerships that are ethical, sustainable, and mutually beneficial.

These partnerships go beyond TNE and research. They focus on shared mutual benefit, working to shape a prosperous, secure, and sustainable world in a time of rapid global change. Institutions recognise that they need to collaborate not just across teaching, research, and business engagement, but also to share business school solutions to the key global challenges such as AI adoption, climate change, and broader geopolitical risks.

2. India–UK collaboration in higher education is entering a new phase, particularly with the India–UK Vision 2035. What do you believe should be the defining priorities for higher education partnerships between the two countries over the next decade?

The priorities should be two-fold.

The first is to share insights and best practice to address the key challenges in TNE and ensure a stronger student experience. This means a deeper understanding of the regulatory environments for business schools in both countries, TNE provision that meets consistent quality benchmarks, and a stronger grasp of the legal, ethical, and cultural contexts in which TNE operates.

The second is recognising the valuable role business schools play in addressing global economic and geopolitical challenges. Moving beyond traditional TNE and research partnerships, there is a real opportunity for business schools in both countries to come together and share solutions rooted in their teaching and research, on challenges such as AI adoption, sustainability, and wider economic and geopolitical risk.

Business and management courses are the most popular in UK universities, and business schools make an exceptional contribution to the economy, society, and innovation in both countries. We live in challenging times, but there is a real opportunity to strengthen collaboration, so business schools across both countries can serve their economies and skills needs while also helping address global challenges.

3. Transnational Education (TNE) is becoming an increasingly important part of the India–UK relationship. Beyond traditional franchise or joint-degree models, what forms of TNE do you see having the greatest potential in India - and what would make these partnerships sustainable and mutually beneficial?

Beyond franchise arrangements and joint degrees, the most significant development is the emergence of full branch campuses, and GIFT City in Gujarat and Knowledge City in Tamil Nadu are the clearest example of this shift. India has created a regulatory environment to make branch campuses viable, and UK institutions have responded quickly.

During the inaugural India-UK Business School Dialogue, we organised a delegation of UK business schools to GIFT City in Gujarat and are organising another delegation this year alongside a delegation to meet with the Telangana government in Hyderabad. There is a real appetite amongst UK business schools to learn more about the higher education provision in these regions and the development of education hubs and to understand how they can collaborate to develop their educational provision to be aligned with the regional economy.

What makes these partnerships sustainable is not the campus itself, but how well they are embedded in the regional economy and addressing its skills and talent development needs.

4. The first India–UK Business School Dialogue in 2025 demonstrated strong appetite for new partnerships, with institutions moving towards new and expanded collaborations. From your experience, what separates a partnership that remains a memorandum of understanding from one that develops into a genuinely impactful, long-term collaboration?

What makes a partnership last is a shared commitment, from the outset, to deliver high-quality, sustainable, ethical, and mutually beneficial collaboration. UK and Indian business schools have a long track record of working together on TNE and TNR, and that will continue, but a signed agreement only becomes a genuine partnership when both institutions build these principles into how they operate.

That is why we have published a TNE Policy Statement to help members build these partnerships properly, and we will be producing a similar statement on TNR during the Dialogue.

The other crucial element is relevant Government and regulatory support mechanisms. At a time when higher education institutions are facing fiscal challenges, Government and regulator support and guidance is essential in helping institutions navigate partnerships that require significant upfront investment.

5. India and the UK bring different strengths in teaching, research, innovation, industry engagement and entrepreneurship. How can universities move beyond simply exchanging expertise to co-create knowledge, programmes and solutions that address shared global challenges?

Business school expertise and research can be used to design programmes and solutions that bridge the gap between academia and business, addressing local, regional, national, and global challenges.

At a local level, business schools play an important role in their communities and are often the gateway to enduring entrepreneurial support. Small Business Charter accredited business schools in the UK, for example, have long been centres of excellence for SME support, delivering the Government-backed Help to Grow: Management course, which has enrolled 14,420 business leaders, 92% of whom reported improved confidence in their ability to lead and manage their business. Business schools in both countries can co-create executive education programmes for SMEs, drawing on this experience of what works in their own communities to address specific business and skills needs.

At a global level, institutions can build joint research programmes on shared challenges such as AI adoption and sustainability, and translate that research directly into joint teaching, so staff and students in both countries are equipped to address these challenges together.

6. Quality assurance, regulatory alignment and maintaining academic standards are critical as cross-border education expands. What should Indian and UK institutions prioritise to ensure that international partnerships deliver consistent academic quality while also remaining responsive to local needs?

Institutions in both countries need to start with a shared understanding that partnerships must be ethical, sustainable, and mutually beneficial, and that they need to respect each other's local regulatory environment rather than imposing one system onto the other.

Indian and UK institutions should also be committed to measuring the impact of their partnership and in particular at student, institutional, economic, and regional & national policy levels.

7. The future of higher education will increasingly be shaped by AI, emerging technologies, sustainability and changing workforce requirements. Where do you see the strongest opportunities for Indian and UK universities to collaborate on future-ready education, research and skills development?

AI will transform higher education and the world of work, but there will still be a need for human skills, and business schools are uniquely placed to deliver them. As AI reshapes how graduates work, skills such as leadership, management, and critical thinking will distinguish them, and business schools are well placed to nurture these skills. These are not skills AI can replace.

Furthermore, business schools in both countries can develop programmes that blend academic rigour with practical skills and real-world experience. Business schools are naturally placed to do this well, since by their nature they act as a bridge between industry and academia, and aligning teaching with employer needs.

By combining UK and Indian expertise in leadership and management education and pairing it with shared research into how AI is changing work, both countries can ensure their graduates leave equipped not just with fluency in AI, but with the human skills that will distinguish them and develop their leadership capability in an age of rapid AI and technology adoption.

8. How can India–UK partnerships create greater opportunities not only for students, but also for faculty mobility, joint research, entrepreneurship, industry engagement and knowledge exchange? What models do you believe universities should explore more actively?

Partnerships tend to focus on joint teaching, research, and the exchange of staff and ideas, which are all important, but the one aspect that tends to get overlooked is how each institution approaches its role in the local community and how it engages with businesses regionally and nationally.

There is a real opportunity for institutions across both countries to learn from how the other engages with industry and business to improve economic growth and productivity. In the UK, Small Business Charter accredited business schools show what this can look like in practice, acting as regional anchor institutions for SME support, entrepreneurship, and economic development. Sharing this experience alongside more traditional models of international collaboration would give India-UK partnerships a dimension that goes beyond academic exchange and into genuine economic impact on the ground for both countries.

9. From the perspective of UK business schools, what can Indian private universities and business schools do differently to become stronger and more attractive long-term partners for UK institutions?

Indian private universities and business schools can strengthen their position as long-term partners by aligning quality assurance and accreditation practices with international benchmarks, and by being transparent about governance. Investing in research capacity and output is also crucial, as it allows joint research to be genuinely equal, focused no mutual benefit institutionally so that it can attract funding from both public and private sectors.

10. Looking ahead to 2035 and beyond, what would a truly successful India–UK higher education partnership ecosystem look like to you - and what is the one action you would urge university leaders in both countries to take today to help make that vision a reality?

A truly successful India-UK partnership ecosystem would be one built on shared standards, where TNE and TNR are guided by common frameworks, and where partnerships are genuinely collaborative rather than one country imposing their models on another. In this ecosystem, business schools will be responsible for delivering high-quality qualifications and research, but also responsible for addressing shared challenges like AI adoption and sustainability. The one action I would urge university leaders to take today is to commit to ethical, sustainable, and mutually beneficial principles from the outset, treating shared standards and regulatory understanding as the foundation of a partnership, alongside a commitment to measure the impact of the partnership outcomes.