The University of Liverpool officially opened its campus in Bengaluru on 15 October 2026, the university said in a release the same day. The campus is at Alembic City in Whitefield, and the university describes it as the first Russell Group university campus in Karnataka.

Close to 300 students have started in the first cohort. The vice-chancellor, Professor Tim Jones, said the university was “incredibly proud to have officially opened our first international campus in over 20 years”. The campus received its letter of approval from the University Grants Commission (UGC) on 5 June 2026, according to an earlier university release.

What is being taught

The university lists five subjects: computer science, game design, business management, accounting and finance, and biomedical sciences. It says the building has smart classrooms, research and innovation spaces, collaboration hubs, specialised laboratories and access to Bloomberg terminals. A lecture theatre has been named after the Nobel laureate Har Gobind Khorana.

At the opening the university signed agreements with the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bell Integration and Sai Life Sciences, and announced a seed fund with the Indian Institute of Science. The Greater Bengaluru Authority and the Liverpool City Region signed a joint declaration of intent. The terms of these agreements were not published.

Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, attended as part of the city region’s first trade mission to India, which began on 12 October, according to the region’s Growth Platform. “This is a massive moment for the University of Liverpool and for our relationship with India,” he said in the university’s release.

Emeritus, an education company, names Liverpool as one of seven foreign universities in India for which it acts as joint venture partner, in a release dated 15 October. The ownership and financial terms of that arrangement have not been published.

What is not disclosed

The university has not given tuition fees, the investment in the campus, the number of academic staff, the split of the first cohort between undergraduate and postgraduate study, or targets for later intakes.

What it means

TED analysis:

  • For UK universities: Bengaluru now has an operating Russell Group campus teaching computing, business and finance, the subjects most foreign campuses in India lead with. Later entrants to the city will compete for the same students, employers and placement partners.
  • For operators and suppliers: with an operating partner handling non-academic functions, buying decisions on student services, property and admissions technology may sit with the partner as much as with the university.
  • For investors: a first cohort of close to 300 is a modest base. The economics will depend on fees and on growth in later intakes, and neither has been disclosed.