UK begins to woo students from smaller Indian towns

Mumbai: Following a 25 per cent decline in Indian students heading to the UK in the last two years, the British Council has embarked on a 20-city roadshow in non-metro cities such as Jaipur and Nagpur to reach out to new students.

The campaign follows the recent controversy over the UK visa bond, where visitors were required to cough up £3,000 for a visa. Though it was scrapped later, the issue dented the international image of that country.

Richard Everitt, British Council’s Director Education (India), said the number of Indian student applications to the UK has fallen to 30,000 from 40,000 over the last two-three years. “Fall in the rupee significantly reduced the share of household income spent on education abroad. Rumours about visa and access and increasing awareness about education options in competing countries such as Germany, Australia and Canada have all contributed to the decline,” he said. The UK attracts an average of four lakh international students every year of which 30,000 are from India.

“The idea of the 20-city tour is to raise awareness, reach out to a wider network of students and help bring back the numbers that have declined since the last few years. We want to dispel rumours of the UK having become an unfriendly destination for Indian students. There is no visa issue for them and they are free to work during study and after study based on certain conditions,” he added.

According to Everitt, Indians can work up to 20 hours a week during study and fulltime after study for a period of three years provided it is a high value job earning over £20,000.

“The only change from two years ago is the change in post study work options for Indian students from low value jobs earlier to high value jobs now,” he added.

The British Council plans to increase scholarships for Indian students in the UK. It plans to offer a microsite on UK’s education that can be accessed even from a handheld device, to cater to the tech-intensive generation.

In November, the British Council announced scholarships worth Rs 10 crore for Indian students, covering 260 post-graduate and under-graduate courses across 36 universities in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland for semesters starting in September 2014 and January 2015.