25,000 UK students to come to India for studies

Patna: Expanding Indo-British partnership in education sector for mutual benefits, as many as 25,000 students from the United Kingdom will come to India to study in the Indian universities over the next five year, a senior British High Commission official said today. The British Council has devised a project called - Generation UK - under which 25,000 students from the UK will come over to India over the next five years for studies, Andrew Soper, Minister Counsellor in the British High Commission at New Delhi, told reporters here.

Asked as to how the British students will benefit by studying in Indian academic institutions when they have world class facilities back home, he said, there are a number of good educational institutions in India, too which can help the students from his country to excel in their chosen field.

Stating that the UK and India have entered into a well established, broad ranging and expanding partnership in education sector over the years, Soper said Prime Minister David Cameron and ministers in his government have visited India with a specific goal to explore further opportunity to broaden partnership in education sector. "Education remains a key plank of bilateral relations between India and the UK," he said.

Soper, who had taught social sciences at Woodstock school in Mussoorie in early 1980s before joining diplomatic service, also sought to woo the Indian students to come over to the UK for education and research in order to boost their career prospects. Similarly, the bilateral partnership between the two countries provides an opportunity to the students from India to undertake education and research in the UK which has four of top six universities of the world and 30 of top 200 academic institutions, he said.

"There are 24,000 students from India studying in different colleges and universities in the UK out of 4.2 lakh overall students from foreign countries," the British High Commission official said. "In fact, 84 per cent applicants (from India) seeking visa for studies in the UK were successful last year," Soper said, adding that in fact, the Indian students studying in the UK can get their visas extended for further studies and work before returning back home.

Moreover, the opportunity to study in the UK has become all the more attractive as there are substantial scholarships available for students from India to study there under the partnership programme between our two countries," he said. "There are 401 part scholarship awards available this year worth 1.51 million pounds (approximately Rs 151 million) for varied subject areas ranging from engineering, law, business to art and design, biosciences across 57 academic institutions spread over England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland," the British high commission official said.

In addition, there are Chevening scholarships being provided by the UK Government's global partnership programme under which the funds will be quadrupled for the Indian students over the next two years to make India the largest recipient in the work, he said.