SUNY Old Westbury partnering with Indian Institute of Technology Bombay amid 66% drop in international students

SUNY Old Westbury is launching a partnership with a highly selective Indian university to offer online and in-person programs in artificial intelligence and other science and engineering subjects, both on Long Island and abroad.

The college is joining with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay to offer joint research ventures as well as faculty and student exchange programs, with plans to start new undergraduate minors and microcredentials as soon as fall 2027. New undergraduate majors and graduate programs would follow a year after that, SUNY Old Westbury president Timothy Sams said in an interview this week.

The 23 IIT schools throughout India are well regarded around the world, especially for their engineering and computer science programs. Their graduates include Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, who received his undergraduate degree from IIT Kharagpur before studying at Stanford University.

Mumbai-based IIT Bombay is a “powerhouse,” Sams said in an interview. SUNY Old Westbury’s goals include “creating solutions to global challenges, and IIT just immediately became the natural partner for that.”

Decline in international students

The partnership comes at a time when international students face more challenges obtaining visas, said Fanta Aw, chief executive officer of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, a nonprofit group focused on international education and exchange.

The group reported earlier this year that the number of international students at U.S. universities dropped by 20% this spring compared with the previous spring, according to a survey of 149 schools. 

"We have seen decline in interest in coming to the U.S., not because students no longer trust and believe in the quality of the U.S. education, but because it's been made so hard for them," she said. Federal denials and revocations of student visas, she said, "have really sent a message, I think, to international students and their families that the U.S. was perhaps no longer that welcoming place that it has historically been."

There have been more discussions lately about exchange programs like the one that SUNY Old Westbury and IIT Bombay have launched, she said. "It's not a new phenomenon," she said. "But because it's a very prestigious institution in India, it is very important."

Arizona State University and the University of California, San Diego are among the public universities that already have exchange programs with universities abroad, and other institutions are considering them, she said. 

"As a result of the difficulties, people have looked at where are there opportunities" to create more international partnerships, she said. Institutions, she said, "deeply believe in the value of international education and are trying to find solutions to this challenge."

The number of foreign students at SUNY Old Westbury fell by 66% in fall 2025 compared with a year earlier, despite an overall enrollment increase of 5.1%, SUNY previously reported. Throughout the SUNY system, international enrollment declined by 3.9% from the previous year, with a 13.8% drop in international students enrolled in graduate programs, SUNY figures show.

The Old Westbury venture will allow students in New York and India to take online and in-person classes at both campuses and benefit from global connections at a time when international studies and research have become more difficult, Sams said. “Even at the most competitive schools, [international] students are preferring to go to schools in Europe and in Asia, and even in Australia, rather than to deal with the rigmarole of coming here,” Sams said.

'World-class institution'

In addition to AI, SUNY Old Westbury and IIT Bombay expect to offer programs in clean technologies and entrepreneurship, among other topics, IIT Bombay’s director, Shireesh B. Kedare, said in an emailed response to questions.

More than 1 million students in India take the initial entrance exam for the IIT schools, and American students at schools such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University have studied abroad at IIT Bombay in recent years, Kedare said.

The Indian institute “has always believed that great education is built on exposure to ideas from around the world — on ideas that cross borders and cultures,” Kedare said. The collaboration with SUNY Old Westbury, he said, “is built around exchange of ideas, people and perspectives between two academic communities, one in India, one in the United States.”

Sams said he became familiar with IIT Bombay when he was associate dean of students at New York University Abu Dhabi about 15 years ago. The connection between SUNY Old Westbury and IIT Bombay came about through the Medford-based Shanti Fund, which collaborates with SUNY Old Westbury on peace education and other programs, and the Indian consul general in New York, Binaya Pradhan, as well as through SUNY Old Westbury’s links with the Indian American community on Long Island, Sams said.

Eishan Singh, 27, who holds bachelor’s degrees in physics and public health from SUNY Old Westbury and received an academic research achievement award from the school, said he would consider enrolling in the AI microcredential program when it begins.

IIT Bombay is a “world-class institution,” said Singh, who lives in Hicksville and works as a senior grants management coordinator and research assistant at SUNY Old Westbury. The partnership, he said, “will be beneficial for students who want to continue with their education and bring about more research opportunities for students.”