The University of Wollongong juggernaut has continued with plans to establish a campus in India.The project is being developed in partnership with Gujarat NRE Coking Coal chairman Arun Jagatramka, who will assist with finance and liaise between the university and Indian authorities.The facility will represent UOW’s second international campus, alongside Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.It is proposed for Mr Jagatramka’s home city of Ahmedabad, in Gujarat state, with initial focus on providing niche higher education programs at bachelor and master degree level.A memorandum of understanding was signed by UOW Vice-Chancellor Professor Gerard Sutton and Mr Jagatramka in Mumbai this week, witnessed by NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell.UOW Deputy Vice-Chancellor (international) Professor Joe Chicharo said the next step would be to develop a business case which would be presented to the UOW Council for approval next year.‘‘All things being okay there, we would start to initiate the in-country approvals in India, and then we would go into the implementation phase, the programs, sourcing academic staff and things we would do there.‘‘We’ve got a fairly clear project plan both here and in India to look at the logistics of it all, to scope it, to look at locations, the potential premises, the due diligence on both parties. So it’s all very, very exciting for us.’’Courses are expected to include engineering to service India’s rapid growth, and the IT industry.Ties have already been established, with leading Indian IT company MphasiS becoming the first international tenant of UOW’s Innovation Campus.Prof Chicharo said discussions for the expansion began last year with Mr Jagatramka, whose well-known benevolence includes saving the Illawarra Hawks from collapse in 2009.‘‘He indicated a very strong philanthropic motivation to do this. He’s interested in education and is keen for us and this region to engage with India,’’ he said.Prof Chicharo said the university had been looking at how to engage more deeply with India, especially given the country’s high demand for education.‘‘They want to upskill and train over 500million people, and there’s no way that the current Indian education system can cope with that,’’ he said.Until now, Indian government legislation made it difficult for foreign universities to establish a presence, however new legislation about to be passed would simplify the process.Prof Chicharo said the Indian campus would be similar in size to the Dubai facility, which caters for about 4000 students.‘‘There are different approaches. You could either ramp it up slowly and grow it organically like UOW in Dubai which was an overnight success which took 19 years to achieve.‘‘But I suspect we’re not going to be waiting 19 years to get India to that scale, simply because the size of the student market demand is much more significant.’’He said that going into India was not without its challenges, but ‘‘having somebody of Mr Jagatramka’s calibre and insights into how to do things in India will help this joint initiative enormously’’.Mr O’Farrell applauded the partnership. ‘‘The University of Wollongong is representative of the world-quality education that our universities offer and having an on-the-ground presence in India will help to promote our state as a leader in international education,’’ he said.Mr Jagatramka is overseas and could not be reached.