Exploring opportunities from CETA for furthering partnerships in higher education.
The UK-India Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), signed on the same day as the India–UK Vision 2035 in July 2025, came into effect on the 15th July 2026.
CETA spans a wide range of sectors, and education stands to gain on several fronts. Some of those gains are cross-cutting. The India-UK Double Contributions Convention, for example, stops temporary workers and their employers from paying social security contributions in both countries at the same time, a direct saving for any institution seconding staff between the two. Others are aligned much more closely to the work of the education sector, and those are the focus of this blog. We begin with what is already working in the India-UK partnership, before turning to the architecture CETA creates and the two areas where that architecture matters most for universities. The pace of change in the bilateral education relationship over the past five years has been remarkable.
This momentum resulted in Education being identified as one of five pillars under the UK India Vision 2035. The implementation of the Education Pillar is led by the British Council India, and as the implementation of CETA demonstrates, there is significant room, and shared desire, for greater collaboration and further opening in both teaching and learning and research. CETA provides the tools necessary for achieving the full potential of the India-UK Vision 2035.
What is already at work
The bi-lateral partnership between India and the UK in the Education sector has deep roots. Research and Innovation partnerships build on decades of collaborations fostered under flagship programmes like the UK India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI), the Newton Bhabha Fund, now International Science Partnership Fund (ISPF), and more recent initiatives like the Technology Security Initiative (TSI), that focus collaboration in critical and emerging technologies (CET) across priority sectors launched in 2024, and the establishment of the Research and Innovation Corridor (RIC), a flagship bilateral initiative launched in 2025 to boost research and innovation productivity by integrating our eco-systems and creating partnerships across people and programmes. While the basis for research partnerships has been steadily evolving, the welcome changes to teaching and learning partnerships have been more disruptive following the launch of the National Education Policy (2020) in India. The most high-profile strategic shift has been the introduction of International Branch Campuses (IBC) under the Foreign Higher Education Institutions Regulation (2023). This closely followed two other important changes in the teaching and learning space from the year before in 2022 – the Mutual Recognition of Qualifications Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and India and the UGCs Academic Collaboration between Indian and Foreign Higher Educational Institutions to offer Twinning, Joint Degree and Dual Degree Programmes, Regulations.
Most noticeably, and with much hard-earned celebration, these steps led first to the IFSCA framework at GIFT City (2022) in Gujarat, and quickly on to the national University Grants Commission (UGC) Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India Regulations (2023), which together have enabled 10 UK universities to receive Letters of Intent to establish new International Branch Campuses in India, with most having also received their subsequent Letters of Approval. Two are already active and teaching students – University of Southampton, Delhi and Queen’s University Belfast, GIFT City and four more are deep into recruitment to open their doors later this year. In Mumbai all three UK Universities will be opening up, University of Aberdeen Mumbai, University of York Mumbai and University of Bristol Mumbai and Bengaluru will see its first campus opening up, the University of Liverpool Bengaluru. Following hot on their heels in 2027 will be the University of Surrey GIFT City, Lancaster University Bengaluru and Birkbeck University of London Bengaluru.
In 2022 the UGC also published Academic Collaboration Regulations permitting twinning, joint and dual degree programmes with foreign HEIs. While under-discussed, the next wave of Transnational Education Partnerships will be enabled through these regulations, opening up avenues all over India for students in India to access UK qualifications closer to home. The British Council recently published a grant call, TNE Grants with India 2026-27, to enable exploration for UK Universities in this area; that round closed in August 2026, with funded projects starting the following month, and further calls are expected. Taken together, these mechanisms are the foundation that CETA now builds on.
What CETA adds
CETA delivers the machinery to facilitate the ease of doing business – establishing a Joint Committee, sub-committees and working groups, transparency and good regulatory practice obligations, notification and comment procedures. For universities, this architecture is more useful than it may first appear. The Joint Committee and its sub-committees give the two governments a standing venue that meets to a schedule, so an issue raised no longer waits for a ministerial visit or a bilateral summit to come round. The notification and comment procedures mean that proposed regulatory changes are flagged in advance, with a window in which to respond – valuable for any institution that has committed capital to a campus and needs early sight of how the rules may evolve. The good regulatory practice obligations commit both sides to publishing rules, applying them consistently and giving reasons for decisions. The working groups also come with named counterparts and, in the case of the Innovation Working Group, a work plan and published summaries of its discussions, giving universities something concrete to track and a route in through government. Within the flowering of new subcommittees there are two to watch out for, one related to regulated professions and the other on innovation, both of which may open important doors for the Higher Education sector in both countries.
Education has been a dynamic space in the bilateral relationship between India and the UK, as demonstrated. With CETA in force, these changes are now bound at treaty level, and the agreement provides mechanisms to open the sector further — though India retains an explicit right to regulate fees. Where UK universities encounter difficulties, it gives the UK government a channel to raise issues with their Indian counterparts, as appropriate, through the treaty’s consultation mechanism, working group discussions and cooperation activities. One area remains unfinished. Alongside CETA, the two countries have been negotiating a separate Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), which can add protection for the assets of foreign investors. That negotiation was not concluded, and the UK remains open to continuing it and seeking a deal that works for UK businesses and their investments into India.
The vitality of the partnership continues to grow through the Education Pillar and will be driven by the Annual Ministerial Education Dialogue established between the Department of Education and the Ministry of Education, set to meet for the first time this financial year. Central to the discussions at the Annual Dialogue will be the maintenance of the Memorandum of Understanding for the Mutual Recognition of Qualifications (MoU MRQ signed July 2022), which provides one of the foundation stones for the current era of innovation and new partnerships between the UK and India. The MoU supports the vision set out by the Government of India for internationalisation under the National Education Policy published in 2020, establishing a bilateral platform for the recognition of academic qualifications. The first of two key changes introduced by CETA that is important to highlight is that it introduces an equivalent mechanism for professional qualifications.
Recognition of professional qualifications
Chapter 8: Trade in Services covers market access commitments in the research and development sector and the recognition of professional qualifications for regulated professions. While the MRQ MoU is the foundation for much of the current TNE partnerships between the UK and India, there is still a limitation on courses that lead directly to employment in regulated professions. Within Chapter 8, Annex 8A applies to professions regulated in either country, where a profession counts as regulated if its practice – including use of a title or designation – depends upon holding specific professional qualifications. Courses related to regulated professions are in significant demand among Indian students studying in the UK at just over 20% of all enrolments across recent years (see graph 1 below). UK universities are in a good position to launch new courses through TNE in India focussing on regulated sectors such as healthcare, clinical psychology, architecture, teaching and many other professions vital to local economies, if full use is made of the new provision under CETA.
Graph 1: Indian student enrolments in the UK focussing on subjects related to regulated professions (HESA)
Source: British Council HESA data tool
This is not a short-term win, but a medium-term engagement that could open significant doors for the UK and now is the time for university leaders to engage and shape the agenda. There is now a 12 month period, where each country must engage with its relevant bodies and identify professional services where mutual interest may exist for negotiating recognition arrangements. Through CETA a Working Group on Professional Services will be established and the first meeting of which will take place after 12 months of the entry into force, by when the consultations with professional bodies should be complete. It is expected that dialogues on professional standards may cover education, examinations, experience, conduct and ethics, professional development and recertification, scope of practice, local knowledge and consumer protection – many aspects of which universities have a significant voice. If all goes to plan it is expected that new arrangements will conclude within 36 months of the treaty coming into force, that is July 2029. While that may seem a while away, the conversation starts now. These discussions will be led for the UK by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST) and the British High Commission in India. UK universities wishing to find out more can connect to the UK Education Hub.
Research and Innovation
The second area of interest is research and innovation. It is early days, but it is worth understanding the framework being established, so that university leaders can engage early to shape and inform the agenda. Research and innovation is addressed in several places in the agreement, but it is worth starting with Chapter 14: Innovation, as it explicitly recognises collaboration involving governments, industries, universities, publicly funded research agencies and other non-governmental bodies. The chapter also recognises existing innovation collaboration between the UK and India and confirms the Parties’ commitment to strengthening it further through initiatives aimed at research and development, capacity building, technical cooperation, and the voluntary transfer and development of technology on mutually agreed fair and reasonable terms.
Chapter 14 is not subject to the CETA’s dispute-settlement mechanism, and the chapter places particular emphasis on cooperation and collaboration, exemplified by its reference to the “voluntary transfer and development of technology on mutually agreed fair and reasonable terms.” CETA establishes an Innovation Working Group made up of representatives from both governments, which shall meet at least annually in the three years following entry into force. This will provide a forum for sharing best practices and exploring opportunities in innovation policy across government, academia, research organisations, industry and business including the start-up ecosystem, for example through start-up exchange missions. The Working Group may also consult, engage with, or seek advice from non-governmental stakeholders, creating opportunities for engagement from universities and research institutions alongside other interested organisations. Universities wishing to find out more can connect to the UK Education Hub.
India’s services schedule treats Research and Development (R&D) as a commercial sector. R&D services in natural sciences — excluding atomic energy — engineering-adjacent research, computing and in social sciences (excluding law) are open at “Mode 3” enabling a provider to set up in another country, which can take the form of an International Branch Campuses or other innovations, such as the Science Hub established by Imperial College London in Bangalore. In principle there are no new restrictions related to R&D in these sectors under the treaty. However, this does not translate to teaching and learning, where course approval is part of the regulations under UGC and GIFT City.
Significant progress in defining the future strategic relationship between universities in the UK and India is already being made through the establishment of the Research and Innovation Corridor (RIC). There is also ongoing research into the unique role that UK International Branch Campuses in the research and innovation sector commissioned by the British Council, which should be released later in the year.
Finally, Chapters 13 and 14 do not prescribe standard contractual terms for background or foreground IP, ownership allocation, publication rights or spin-out equity; these remain for the collaborating institutions to address under applicable law and their agreements. These chapters also do not create a research funding programme or set rules on researcher mobility, research security or data governance. Existing funding routes, regulatory requirements and contractual practice therefore continue to shape international research strategy. What CETA adds is the Innovation Working Group, and the value universities take from it will depend on how actively the sector uses it.
In conclusion
So, what doors will CETA open for the sector? The most immediate ones are already ajar. Branch campuses, twinning and dual degree partnerships and the recognition of academic qualifications are live, growing, and where the sector’s energy is best spent right now. What CETA adds is a structure to build on them: standing forums, named counterparts, a timetable, and for the first time a treaty-level commitment on both sides to keep talking. Those structures are being set up over the coming months, and the sector has an unusual opportunity to shape them while they are still being written. The window for identifying professional services of mutual interest for negotiation of mutual recognition arrangements runs to 15 July 2027, the first meeting of the Working Group on Professional Services falls within that period and, separately, Chapter 14 provides that the Innovation Working Group shall meet at least once annually during the first three years after CETA entered into force. None of these will wait for the sector to finish reading the treaty. For university leaders, then, the question is less what CETA has already delivered and more which of these conversations your institution intends to be part of — and the simplest first step remains the same one: get in touch with the UK Education Hub.