University of Western Australia to invite applications for Chennai campus in two weeks

Amit Chakma, Vice-Chancellor, UWA | Photo Credit: UWA Website

Perth-based University of Western Australia (UWA) will open its offshore campus in Chennai by September of this year and will begin to invite applications in the next two weeks. The campus, along with its counterpart in Mumbai, is part of UWA’s cross-border expansion to India, a venture into which the institute has invested ₹560 crore.  

Speaking to select media, Amit Chakma, Vice-Chancellor, UWA, said on Monday that the institute will initially offer undergraduate programmes and will expand to postgraduate and doctoral programmes in the coming years

“We plan to tailor programmes in Indian campuses as per the domestic education and career landscape with a stronger focus on industry connect and placement opportunities,” he added. 

The space and facilities have been leased within DLF Cybercity, an IT hub in Chennai. For the first year, UWA is expecting to admit a cohort of as many as 500 students and 100 faculty members.

Chakma said that while the regulations right now necessitate that all the faculty for the campus be hired locally, the institute is exploring options to bring in staff from Perth in future.

He added that while the current visa and immigration challenges have influenced the timing, the institute had been assessing cross-border expansion well before these challenges emerged. He also mentioned that the launch of such offshore campuses will not have any material impact on the total number of Indian students admitted to UWA’s main Campus in Perth.

Chakma was also a part ofthe launch of UWA Hack for Impact 2026 — a five-day cross-border innovation hackathon where students from India and Australia collaborate to create sustainable solutions to real-world challenges.

Published on March 2, 2026