NAGPUR: With India emerging as IT superpower, the reverse brain drain has already started and even the foreign varsities are planning to send students in the country for studying and work experience. Director of the British Council, West India, Sharon Memis , informed that they would be sending 25,000 students in India for both purpose in next five years. She was interacting with the media during an educational fair at Tuli International where 18 renowned universities from the United Kingdom participated. “Our ‘Generation UK’, a new British Council programme, aims to bring up to 25,000 UK students to India over the next five years,” she said.

Explaining about objectives of the unique programme, she said it was to promote India as a destination to gain study and work experience and offer mutually beneficial placements. “This will give UK’s youth the chance to develop employability skills and support the internationalization of Indian companies and academic institutions. In addition, British Council has introduced the ‘Education UK Alumni Awards 2015’ to honour the outstanding achievements made by business professionals, entrepreneurs and community leaders who can demonstrate how their education has impacted on their subsequent success,” she said.

She added that the UK and India share a well-established, wide-ranging and expanding partnership on education. “For strengthening this partnership, the British Council announced ‘Great Britain Scholarships — India 2015’. With 401 scholarships worth close to Rs 151 million this year, and over 750 in the last two years, it’s the largest ever scholarships programme offered to the students here,” she explained.

At the fair, the universities provided information on undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes in the UK as well as details on student life and culture. “We’re keen to encourage greater student mobility and exchanges between the two countries. UK welcomes India’s best talent, to gain internationally recognized qualifications from top-ranking global institutions,” Demis informed.

