Gurugram, Sept. 18 -- Tucked into the landscaped lanes of Gurugram's 80-acre International Tech Park, rubbing shoulders with the world's tech giants in the estate's tall glass towers, is an unlikely name: the University of Southampton, Delhi.

The institution, with the lush green Aravali hills serving as the backdrop, is the British university's second offshore campus after Malaysia. Inside, the atmosphere is more collegiate than corporate: students hunched over laptops in cheerful cushioned booths, the hum of a coffee machine, faculty preparing the conference hall for lectures, and prospective students dropping in to inquire about enrolment.

The university opened its doors to the first cohort of 150 students just last month. With induct...