As Indian students look for options to study abroad, the UK tops the list after the US. Numbers speak it all. More than 27,000 Indian students are currently studying in the UK and the number is growing at the rate of over 10% each year. As for north India, while the number of Indian students in UK stood at 5,000 in 2006, the numbers rose by 17% in 2007.
Talking to FE, Amit Chaturvedi, head-north India, Education UK said, “The Education UK exhibition will travel to seven cities of India and will have more than a 100 representatives of 67 UK institutions participating in it. The exhibition that began in Mumbai will travel to Kolkata, Delhi, Chandigarh , Ahmedabad, Kochi and Coimbatore”. Interestingly, Indian students are generally attracted to a one-year master’s program and a three year undergraduate course in the UK (except Scotland). More than 75% of the students go to UK for pursuing postgraduate degree. There are also schemes like Fresh Talent and International Graduates Scheme that allows them to work after they have finished their study in the UK.
“The favourites of Indian students are courses in Law, Business and Management, Art and Design, Biotechnology and Engineering,” he added. “A larger number of students are now preferring to go to the UK as its easy to get a student’s visa and facilities like students can work about 20 hours per week. However, UK is not a job destination, he said.