Director, education, British Council India, Rittika Chanda Parruck, said the British Council would send 15 meritorious students from Telangana to the United Kingdom (UK) on March 25, 2023, in partnership with the state government and the University of Glasgow as a part of its Scholarships for Outstanding Undergraduate Talent (SCOUT) program. The course/programme is developed as a two-week curriculum with a certificate from the University of Glasgow.

Parruck added that the British Council covered accommodation, food, and travel expenses within the United Kingdom (UK), while the Telangana government offered flight tickets.

Furthermore, according to the council, 47 UK universities are in cooperation with 62 Indian universities at present.

Chair of British Universities’ International Liaison Association (BUILA), associate pro-vice-chancellor (Global Engagement), University of Portsmouth, Bobby Mehta, said these partnerships have been inked with both public and private universities. We look forward to industry-academia collaborations.

Interestingly, post-Brexit, the priority area of the UK’s education sector has deviated to the global market. “Before Brexit, we focused on connections with Europe, but now the system has changed, and India is a key strategic driver for UK varsities,” Mehta explained. Mehta added that after the occurrence of the pandemic, the need for this kind of subject in the UK industry has drastically modified. “Data science, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence (AI) are in demand. However, humanities have also appeared as a prominent and preferable discourse in previous years.

In addition, the council claims to offer scholarships at the PG level. Rittika Chanda Parruck said the GREAT scholarship is for UK institutes at an average cost of £10,000. The Women in STEM scholarship is fully financed with an average expense of £35,000,” Parruck added. Furthermore, the British Council also claims to deliver annual grants to the universities for certification programmes.