UK varsities banking on Karnataka to further education goals

BENGALURU: With the largest envoy of UK delegates, consisting mostly of vice-chancellors and university officials, currently visiting India, a large portion of them had insisted on visiting Karnataka, said Vivienne Stern, director for Universities UK International (UUKi).

Out of 23 representatives visiting India, spearheaded by Stern, 16 representatives had insisted on visiting universities in Karnataka, specifically Bengaluru. “Karnataka, by a very large margin, was a very popular destination amongst the envoy, since many wanted to come here to find out what was going on, which is mostly due to the National Education Policy,” Stern told TNIE.

Both Stern and British Council India Director Barbara Wickham spoke to TNIE on the current envoy of UK university officials visiting the state and their hopes on what it would do for future collaborations between the two countries as well as education in Karnataka. 

“Many UK universities are talking to their counterparts in India and working out where their expertise and strengths align. In the comings weeks and months, having established a point of contact, these universities and institutions will follow-up and have collaborations in terms of joint degrees, research, exchange programmes and others,” Stern told TNIE.

On why these collaborations are necessary and why the delegation had come to visit now, Wickham said that education is a global priority due to a fast-changing world. “Our focus is on how the UK and India can work together on shared global challenges. Especially with the last two years of the pandemic showing us a lot, we want to get together the brightest and the best from both countries for the wider benefit of the world. With the world changing so fast, we need to know what the response of educational institutions is to these changes to make sure that our young people have those skills, because it is education and research that will help us meet those global shared challenges,” she told TNIE.

Meanwhile, Stern said that Bengaluru was quickly becoming a hub for international education in India. “We have a government that recognises that international exposure for students is very important and that aligns with the priorities of both the Karnataka and the Indian governments,” she said.