Delhi emerges as world's most cost competitive student city: Report

Younger demography, infra potential prime India's push to be most strategic higher education growth market globally

Delhi has emerged as the world’s most cost-competitive student city, with India’s tier-1 cities enabling entry, brand visibility and immediate scale for foreign higher education institutions (FHEIs), according to a joint report by Knight Frank India, Deloitte India and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).

 

“Delhi NCR is India’s strongest anchor market for global universities, with Gurugram leading the way. International connectivity, proximity to embassies and the presence of Fortune 500 companies enable deep industry-academia collaboration,” the report stated.

 

With India being home to the world’s largest cohort aged 18 to 23 years, at nearly 155 million young adults, the report added that the country is transitioning from a traditional outbound student market to a core geography for offshore university campuses.

 

This shift is leading to demand for vertical campuses by FHEIs in India, with the number estimated to reach 19 million square feet by 2040.

 

Currently, 19 FHEIs are either operational or have received a letter of intent (LoI) from the Union education ministry to set up a campus in India.

 

The report uses a weighted, funnel-based framework to assess each city’s relative performance across four key pillars — connectivity, socio-economic indicators, industry linkages, and demographic opportunity and academic ecosystem.

 

Noting that tier-1 cities such as Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru offer immediate scale, execution certainty and global alignment, the study added that they provide deep and diverse student catchments, strong employability through dense industry and research linkages, and attract international faculty and collaborations.

 

Mumbai, as India’s financial capital, concentrates a dense ecosystem of banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), private equity firms, capital market players, and media and entertainment companies.

 

“High land and living costs constrain large greenfield campuses, but the payoff lies in brand visibility and global exposure,” the report said.

 

Bengaluru, on the other hand, anchors deep industry integration across information technology, artificial intelligence, engineering and research, where FHEIs can benefit from proximity to technology clusters.

 

It added that compared with traditional international study destinations such as London, New York and Sydney, Indian cities are gaining ground by offering globally benchmarked education at a fraction of the cost, combined with strong post-study employment prospects.

 

While select tier-1 cities are acting as immediate anchor markets, tier-2 cities are emerging as strategic frontiers for future expansion by offering a substantially different value proposition centred on expansion efficiency and focused deployment.

 

Cities such as Chandigarh Tricity, Kochi, Goa, Bhubaneswar and Jaipur, among others, feature as mid-scale yet high-attractiveness hubs for hosting offshore campuses. “They provide greater availability of contiguous land parcels that support horizontal or modular campus formats and lower land and operating costs,” it added.

 

Together, this tiered city strategy is expected to enable global universities to balance speed-to-market with long-term scalability, tailoring campus formats to each city’s unique socio-economic and infrastructure profile.