UK hikes allocation for Indian students to £2 mn

UK hikes allocation for Indian students to £2 mn Press Trust of India
New Delhi, December 6

United Kingdom has enhanced the annual scholarship budget for Indian students to two million pounds to attract them to pursue higher education in its country and also proposes to start several new programmes from the next year.

"Prime Minister Tony Blair had recently raised the annual Chevening (scholarship) budget for India to 2 million Pounds (approximately Rupees 14 crore) from the existing 1.2 million Pounds", British High Commissioner Rob Young said here on Friday.

Speaking at a reception hosted for students who returned after completing scholarship programmes in UK, Young said, "India remains at the heart of much of our scholarship and education programmes. We are determined to make Britain the preferred destination for Indian students".

He said over 10,000 young Indians are studying in the UK this year, which is an increase of 25 per cent compared to last academic year adding "We plan to take the figure to 15,000 within the next two years".

Edmund Marsden, Minister for cultural affairs at the British High Commission said besides the existing 120 scholarships, several new ones in the Information Technology arena, and for women in management and 'developing leadership qualities' will be commencing next year.

In order to expand the network of people who graduated from UK, Marsden said the commission plans to increase the number of branches of Association of British Scholars (ABS) from 14 across the country at present.

The 'ABS Job Club', a pool of UK graduates which aims to benefit various companies and institutions to look for potential talented recruits, was also launched during the function.