One of India’s largest colleges, Amity University, is expanding into the US with the purchase of one campus in New York and a proposal to buy two more, drawing opposition from state officials in Massachusetts about the quality of the education it will offer.
- Amity paid $22 million last month to buy a Long Island branch of St. John’s University in New York City, which was selling the campus and shifting to a smaller site on Long Island.
- Amity plans to open its first US branch at the 170-acre, century-old campus after it gains ownership in June 2017.
- Amity hopes a US campus will attract students from abroad who want to gain the prestige that comes with studying in the United States. It also hopes to forge research partnerships with other colleges, and to connect foreign scholars with their counterparts.
- Owned by a nonprofit company, the chain offers bachelor’s and graduate degrees in a range of fields, from art to engineering.
- It enrolls 125,000 students at more than a dozen campuses, and has grown rapidly amid rising demand for higher education in India.
- Its founder president, Ashok Chauhan, was charged with fraud in the 1990s by authorities in Germany, where he ran a network of companies. He returned to India and was never extradited.
