The MoU was signed quietly on 6 July at Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs in Jakarta. The announcement came the next day, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s joint press statement with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto after bilateral talks.
“We are going to establish a campus of India’s prestigious management institute, IIM Bangalore, in Indonesia,” Modi said. “This will greatly benefit the youth across the entire ASEAN region.”
It will. But the announcement also signals something larger, and more directly relevant to Indian families in Australia, the UK, the UAE, the US, Canada and New Zealand: India’s premier institutions are going global, and the pace is accelerating.
What is being built and where
The IIM Bangalore campus will come up at the Singhasari Special Economic Zone in Malang, East Java. It is the first overseas campus for IIM Bangalore, India’s second-ranked management institution per the NIRF 2025 rankings.
The programme will be delivered in two phases. Phase one comprises short-duration Executive Education Programmes for senior executives, business leaders and public sector professionals. Phase two, subject to successful implementation over the first two years, introduces degree-granting management programmes requiring regulatory approvals.
The curriculum across both phases will focus on five areas: artificial intelligence, digital transformation, global supply chains, climate and sustainability, and healthcare management. Students enrolled in Indonesia will have access to IIM Bangalore’s repository of MOOCs and will be offered short academic immersion visits to the Bengaluru campus.
The MoU is between IIM Bangalore and PT Intelegensia Grahatama, the managing and development authority of the Singhasari SEZ. It was signed in the presence of India’s Ambassador to Indonesia Sandeep Chakravorty, IIM Bangalore Director-in-Charge Prof. U. Dinesh Kumar, SEZ Singhasari CEO KRAT David Santoso, and Prof. Jitamitra Desai, Professor and Member of the Board of Governors at IIM Bangalore.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan described the move as “a new chapter for India’s education sector.”
Why IIM Bangalore?
IIM Bangalore is ranked second among India’s 21 Indian Institutes of Management in the National Institutional Ranking Framework 2025, behind IIM Ahmedabad, and appears among the world’s top 100 MBA programmes in the QS Global MBA 2026 ranking. It was the natural choice for a second IIM overseas campus after IIM Ahmedabad opened in Dubai in 2024: strong global brand, a technology and entrepreneurship focus that aligns with Indonesia’s digital economy priorities, and an existing track record in executive education that suits the phase one launch model. The Indonesia campus’s degree programmes, when introduced in phase two, will have separate admission processes from the domestic CAT route.
The four campuses abroad: a pattern the diaspora should track
The Indonesia announcement is not an isolated event. It is the fourth overseas campus opened by a premier Indian institution in three years, and the second specifically in Southeast Asia and the Gulf, the two regions with the largest Indian diaspora populations outside the West.
| Institution | Overseas campus | Location | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| IIT Madras | First overseas IIT campus | Zanzibar, Tanzania | 2023 |
| IIT Delhi | International campus | Abu Dhabi, UAE | September 2024 |
| IIM Ahmedabad | First IIM overseas campus | Dubai, UAE | 2024 |
| IIM Bangalore | First IIM Bangalore overseas campus | Malang, Indonesia | 2026 (announced) |
The IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi campus and IIM Ahmedabad Dubai campus are the most directly relevant to the Indian diaspora. The UAE is home to approximately 4.4 million Indians, the largest Indian community outside South Asia. An IIT or IIM degree, historically accessible only through India’s intensely competitive domestic entrance process, is now available in a city where a large share of Indian families already live and work.
For Indian families in the Gulf, this changes the calculation around higher education. A child raised in Dubai or Abu Dhabi no longer needs to move to India for an IIT or IIM qualification. The institution has come to them.
What NEP 2020 has to do with it
The campus openings are not ad hoc diplomatic gestures. They are the direct implementation of the National Education Policy 2020, which explicitly encouraged leading Indian higher education institutions to establish overseas campuses to extend India’s educational reach and position the country as a global knowledge provider.
The government has described the initiative as part of India’s ambition to emerge as a provider of quality, affordable higher education for the Global South. Each of the four campuses sits in a country or region where India has strategic relationships: Tanzania (Africa), UAE (Gulf, Indian Ocean), Indonesia (ASEAN, Indo-Pacific).
The Indonesia announcement came on the first leg of Modi’s three-nation Indo-Pacific tour covering Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, reflecting a deliberate diplomatic framing: India’s educational institutions are part of its Act East Policy and its MAHASAGAR vision for the Indian Ocean region.
What this means for Indian students and families abroad
The direct application from this announcement is limited for Indian families in Australia, the UK, the US, Canada or New Zealand. The Indonesia campus serves Indonesian and ASEAN students in its primary intake. There is no announced application pathway for Indian diaspora students outside Southeast Asia.
The meaningful implication is strategic and directional. The pace at which India is placing its premier institutions abroad suggests that the Gulf, Southeast Asia and potentially Australia are the near-term targets for further expansion. The precedent set by IIT Delhi in Abu Dhabi and IIM Ahmedabad in Dubai demonstrates that the government is willing to authorise campuses in cities with large Indian diaspora populations, not just in strategically aligned developing countries.
For Indian students in Australia currently navigating the 295,000 student cap and the Evidence Level 3 documentation requirements for Australian universities, an IIM or IIT campus in the region would represent a fundamentally different option: an Indian institution’s degree, in a nearby location, at a price point likely to be significantly below Australian university fees.
No such campus has been announced for Australia. But three years ago, no IIM campus existed outside India at all.
What students and families need to know before applying
Can Indian diaspora students in Australia or the UAE apply to the IIM Bangalore Indonesia campus?
The campus is designed primarily for Indonesian nationals and participants from ASEAN countries. No separate application pathway for Indian diaspora students outside the ASEAN region has been announced. Phase one will offer executive education, not degree programmes. Degree programmes in phase two are subject to regulatory approvals not yet granted. Monitor IIM Bangalore’s official website at iimb.ac.in for updates on eligibility and application processes.
How does admission work at the existing overseas IIM and IIT campuses?
IIT Delhi’s Abu Dhabi campus and IIM Ahmedabad’s Dubai campus have their own separate admission processes distinct from the domestic CAT or JEE routes. Eligibility, fees and intake numbers vary. Check the respective institution’s official international campus pages for current admission details.
Is an IIM Bangalore degree from the Indonesia campus equivalent to a degree from the Bengaluru campus?
No official equivalence statement has been made at this stage. Phase two degree programmes are subject to regulatory approvals from both the Indian and Indonesian governments. The question of degree equivalence is one to monitor as the campus moves from MoU to operation.
Which Indian institutions have overseas campuses that Indian diaspora students can currently apply to?
IIT Delhi’s Abu Dhabi campus (operational from September 2024) and IIM Ahmedabad’s Dubai campus (2024) are the two most diaspora-accessible campuses currently operating. Both are in the UAE, making them most relevant to the approximately 4.4 million Indians living there. IIT Madras’s Zanzibar campus serves the East African market. All three have their own admission processes and fees separate from the Indian domestic system.
Will there be an IIM or IIT campus in Australia?
No announcement has been made. The current expansion trajectory covers the Gulf, Southeast Asia and East Africa. Australia has not been named in any government communication as a target location for an IIM or IIT campus.
