The University of Liverpool will open its India campus in Bengaluru’s Whitefield area by September 2026. The UK-based university will offer six undergraduate and two postgraduate programmes, with fees set at less than half of what students pay in the UK.
Speaking to indianexpress.com, Lucy Everest, Chief Operating Officer at the University of Liverpool, said the campus will commence admissions with around 250 students in its first cohort. “They will really be our very special year one cohort that we’ll look after very well,” she said.
The campus is located in Alembic City — a development converted from an old glass factory — will offer programmes in computer science, business management, accounting and finance, game design, and biomedical sciences. The site will also house Google’s new building, expected to open next autumn. The location, she said, allows the university to create “interactive immersive tech-enabled classrooms” similar to its UK facilities.
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Students will study the same curriculum delivered in the UK, with international faculty from both India and the UK working together. The degree certificate will be identical to what students receive from the Liverpool campus, giving graduates access to the university’s global alumni network.
Explaining the choice of Bengaluru, Everest said the city’s global connectivity and scale of activity in technology and business made it the preferred location. She described Bengaluru as “the world’s tech capital” and said it offered a setting where “lots of companies from around the world” operate, allowing students greater access to industry-based learning during their degree.
University of Liverpool India campus photo: University will have shared facilities with Google in Bengaluru’s Whitefield (Representative Image via U-Liverpool)
The university has begun student outreach with online applications ongoing at its website. At present, six undergraduate, and two postgraduate programmes are being offered. “Probably the most exciting and innovative one is biomedical science, where we will not only have laboratory facilities but we’ll also have deep collaborations with industry and research companies,” Everest said. The programme targets pharmaceutical companies based in Bengaluru, while the game design course caters to the city’s gaming industry presence.
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The application process has been tailored to the Indian market, aligning with various examination boards including Cambridge, IGCSE, and CBSE. Students will submit an application form before being invited for interviews. The university is currently engaging with schools and counsellors to build its first cohort.
Student mobility options will also be offered to students, namely, student-exchange opportunities during their course of studies. Everest noted this could appeal particularly to parents who prefer their children to study locally for a couple of years before potentially progressing to the UK, at a later point in time.
When asked about placement opportunities, such as the systematic processes undertaken by Indian institutions like IITs or IIMs, Everest said that the university plans to leverage existing relationships with multinational companies such as Hindustan Unilever, which it already partners with in the UK and Europe. “We offer probably a wider range of embedded industry opportunities for students and we plan to offer those here as well,” Everest said. A team is already working to strengthen and build connections across India.
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The university is also in the process of hiring academic staff for the new campus, with a focus on faculty who have experience across education systems and strong industry engagement. Everest said candidates would need either a PhD from an international university or senior standing in India, along with evidence of “global research and teaching collaborations”. She further added that the Bengaluru campus will emphasise interactive teaching and industry-integrated learning rather than conventional lecture-based formats.
Moreover, the cost of a Liverpool degree in Bengaluru will be “under half of the fee that you would typically pay in the UK”, with the lower cost of living in India making this viable. Additionally, the university will offer both merit-based and needs-based scholarships to ensure diversity in the first cohort, details on which will be notified in due course.
University of Liverpool India campus photo: The University also plans to include residential quarters that will be added in subsequent years (Representative Image via U-Liverpool)
Liverpool expects interest from students who otherwise might not have gone overseas immediately and believes the India campus will expand its reach rather than compete with its UK programmes. “We think there’s a huge growing population of middle-class families who probably would not have sent their children overseas but want a world-class education in India,” she said.
With the new campus expected to open from March-April 2026, Everest said, “We want to start showing people around” and added that construction progress is on schedule for the September 2026 launch. Notably, the plan also includes residential quarters that will be added as student numbers grow subsequently in the second and third years of the programme rollout.
