As we open up a conversation about writing pedagogy in higher education in India, it seems quite impossible to talk about this aspect without firmly locating it in the context of institutions of higher education. As a small, but a growing group of writing teachers, our conversations have consistently convinced us that academic writing pedagogy has to be nurtured to grow within institutions, for it to be as transformative as we are convinced it can be. A transformative writing pedagogy, emergent or otherwise, cannot exist in a vacuum; without being located within an institutional framework, writing pedagogy runs the risk of being available only to a select few in the better endowed universities. In the editorial we highlighted the stark want of resources that characterises the terrain of institutions of higher education in India, thus making the introduction of a dedicated department/ centre of writing pedagogy within the ecology of the university a near impossibility; it is crucial then, to examine closely the handful institutions who have attempted to create these spaces in order that we may derive possible lessons for not just the teachers who are involved in academic writing, but also administrators who might have to anticipate new challenges in the setting up of such courses or centres.