How Indian-Origin Academics Are Shaping World Universities

When people talk about India’s global influence, the conversation usually arrives at familiar destinations: technology companies, doctors, entrepreneurs, CEOs, engineers and scientists.

There is, however, another Indian export that rarely gets the same attention.

Ideas.

Across universities in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and other countries, academics of Indian origin are teaching students, conducting research, supervising doctoral scholars and, in some cases, helping run some of the world’s most prestigious institutions.

The interesting part is that this influence is not always visible.

A professor does not necessarily make headlines every morning. There is no stock ticker for a successful research paper and no breaking-news alert when a scholar mentors a brilliant student.

Yet universities are where tomorrow’s scientists, doctors, engineers, business leaders, policymakers and researchers are trained.

And that makes academic influence rather important.

From students to academic leaders

Perhaps one of the clearest examples comes from Harvard.

Srikant M. Datar, an alumnus of the University of Bombay and IIM Ahmedabad, became the 11th dean of Harvard Business School in January 2021. Harvard’s own current profile lists him as dean from 2021 to the present. His research has covered management control, strategy, governance, management education, design thinking and, more recently, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

He followed another Indian-origin academic leader at Harvard Business School, Nitin Nohria, who served as dean from 2010 to 2020.

Harvard College has also had Indian-origin academic leadership. Rakesh Khurana, a professor at Harvard Business School and sociology professor, was appointed dean of Harvard College in 2014.

These are not honorary cultural positions.

They are serious academic leadership jobs involving education, faculty, institutional strategy and the development of future generations of students.

That distinction matters.

The Indian academic story abroad is therefore not simply about Indians getting teaching jobs at famous universities.

It is also about reaching positions where academic priorities themselves can be shaped.

And then there is MIT

Another striking example is Anantha P. Chandrakasan.

An Indian-American electrical engineer and longtime MIT faculty member, Chandrakasan became MIT’s provost in July 2025 after previously serving as dean of the MIT School of Engineering and the institute’s inaugural chief innovation and strategy officer.

Today, MIT describes the provost as the Institute’s chief academic and budget officer, with responsibility extending across academics, research, faculty matters and major institutional activities.

Chandrakasan’s own academic work has been particularly associated with low-power electronics, integrated circuits and energy-efficient systems.

So here is an interesting picture:

One Indian-origin scholar is leading one of the world’s best-known business schools.

Another is overseeing the academic and research enterprise of one of the world’s leading technology institutions.

Neither story fits comfortably into the old stereotype of the Indian professional simply succeeding abroad.

This is institutional leadership.

The numbers tell part of the story — but not the whole story

How many Indian-origin academics are there worldwide?

That sounds like a straightforward question.

It isn’t.

Different studies use different definitions: Indian-born academics, Indian citizens abroad, people of Indian ancestry, overseas citizens of India and academics who have simply studied in India.

Consequently, there is no universally accepted global headcount.

An Oxford-linked study examining international academic mobility used a survey of approximately 4,600 Indian academics across the globe and found strong patterns of international academic mobility, particularly where researchers had obtained earlier international study or professional experience.

A 2025 IIM Bangalore policy paper on India’s STEM diaspora cited an estimate of approximately 22,000 faculty members of Indian descent in U.S. universities. Because this is an estimate rather than a global census, it should be treated accordingly.

The important point is therefore not whether the number is 20,000, 22,000 or some other figure.

It is that the Indian academic diaspora is large enough to constitute a meaningful international intellectual network.

STEM is only part of the story

There is a tendency to discuss Indian academics abroad almost exclusively through engineering, medicine and computer science.

Those fields are certainly important.

But the academic footprint is broader.

Indian-origin scholars work in economics, management, history, architecture, public policy, social sciences, agriculture, environmental science and many other disciplines.

Australia offers a useful example.

At the University of Melbourne, Professor Neeraj Bhala, an Indian-origin academic, is Professor of Gastroenterology at Melbourne Medical School and Academic Director and Head of the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. In 2025, he became the first Indian-origin recipient of the Royal College of Physicians of London’s Bisset Hawkins Medal in its 125-year history.

At the University of Queensland, Professor Sagadevan Mundree, a fourth-generation South African of Indian origin, leads research in agricultural biotechnology focused on crop resilience, drought, salinity and food production.

And Australia’s academic connection with India is increasingly becoming institutional rather than merely individual.

In 2025, Queensland University of Technology hosted the inaugural Forum of Australian Academics of Indian Origin, bringing scholars and policymakers together around education and research links between Australia and India.

That is a significant development.

The diaspora is not merely producing successful individuals.

It can also become a network for international research collaboration.

The bridge back to India

This may ultimately be the most valuable part of the story.

An Indian professor working abroad does not necessarily represent a permanent loss to India.

Knowledge travels.

Researchers collaborate across borders. Students move between universities. Joint projects are created. Academic conferences generate new partnerships. Visiting faculty teach in different countries.

The Indian government has recognised this potential.

The Department of Science & Technology has described programmes such as VAIBHAV and PRABHASS as mechanisms for connecting Indian-origin scientists and researchers abroad with Indian academic and research institutions. In 2021, the department said it was working to strengthen connections between the Indian scientific diaspora and researchers in India.

The University of Cambridge similarly describes India as a strategic priority and notes collaborations involving Indian partners in fields ranging from sensor technology and antimicrobial resistance to agriculture and earthquake resilience.

This changes the meaning of the old phrase “brain drain.”

The movement of talent abroad can certainly mean that India loses people who might otherwise have contributed domestically.

That criticism is legitimate.

But the modern world also creates something more complicated:

brain circulation.

A researcher may leave India, build expertise abroad, collaborate with Indian institutions and eventually return — permanently or periodically — with knowledge, networks, funding connections and international experience.

The brain did not necessarily disappear.

Sometimes it simply got a boarding pass.

There is a harder question India must ask

Celebrating Indian-origin academics abroad is easy.

The harder question is:

Why do many highly trained Indian researchers still find stronger academic ecosystems abroad?

Prestigious universities offer large research budgets, advanced laboratories, global collaboration networks and institutional environments designed to attract international talent.

India has outstanding institutions and researchers, but it still faces challenges involving research funding, infrastructure, academic autonomy, bureaucratic processes and the uneven quality of institutions.

That means celebrating diaspora success should not become an excuse for ignoring domestic weaknesses.

If anything, diaspora success should be treated as evidence of what Indian talent can accomplish when given strong research environments.

The logical response is not resentment.

It is improvement.

The professor’s influence is different from the CEO’s

There is another reason this story deserves attention.

A CEO can influence thousands of employees.

A politician can influence public policy.

A scientist can change an entire field.

But a professor can influence the people who will eventually do all three.

A good academic does more than deliver lectures.

They select research questions, challenge assumptions, supervise young researchers, publish findings, build laboratories, establish international collaborations and train students who may themselves become leaders.

That makes universities something more than buildings filled with lecture halls.

They are knowledge factories.

And Indian-origin academics are increasingly visible inside those factories.

The quiet power of academic credibility

Perhaps the most interesting aspect is that academic influence does not require nationalistic branding.

A professor does not need to begin every lecture by announcing where their grandparents were born.

Their contribution is judged by research, teaching, scholarship and institutional leadership.

That is arguably a particularly powerful form of global representation.

The success of an Indian-origin academic at Harvard, MIT, Melbourne or another university does not prove that Indians are inherently better than anyone else.

Nor should it be turned into a competition between nationalities.

What it does demonstrate is something simpler:

Talent can travel across borders, and knowledge becomes more valuable when it connects countries rather than separating them.

DOONITED Editorial Perspective: India should export knowledge — and import opportunity

There is a temptation to view Indian academics abroad through two opposite emotions.

One side says: Look how brilliantly Indians are doing.

The other asks: Why aren’t they doing it in India?

Both questions are legitimate.

But the smarter approach is to ask a third question:

How can India turn its global academic diaspora into an advantage for India’s own knowledge economy?

That means building stronger research institutions at home while creating serious channels for collaboration with Indians and people of Indian origin working abroad.

India does not need every scholar to return permanently.

It needs the relationship to remain productive.

A professor in Boston can collaborate with a laboratory in Bengaluru.

A medical researcher in Melbourne can work with an Indian hospital.

An agricultural scientist in Australia can collaborate with Indian researchers on drought-resistant crops.

A business professor at Harvard can bring Indian cases and experiences into classrooms where future global executives learn about markets.

That is not brain drain versus brain gain.

It is knowledge circulation.

And in a world where universities compete globally for the best minds, that may be the more realistic model.

The takeaway

Indian-origin academics have become an important part of the intellectual landscape of universities abroad. From Harvard Business School and Harvard College to MIT and major Australian institutions, examples show Indian-origin scholars occupying faculty, research and leadership positions across disciplines.

But the real story is bigger than a list of famous names.

It is about knowledge crossing borders.

India’s challenge now is not simply to celebrate Indians who succeed overseas.

It is to build universities and research ecosystems strong enough to attract, retain and reconnect with global Indian talent.

Because the ultimate measure of a country’s intellectual strength is not how many of its brightest people leave.

It is how much knowledge, innovation and opportunity continue to flow between them and the country they came from.

And perhaps that is the new meaning of the Indian academic diaspora:

The classroom may be abroad. The intellectual connection does not have to be.