A top UK academician has said that over 92,000 UK student visas have been awarded to Indian students in 2022 till date, which is a growth of more than 350% on 2019.
Prof Nick Jennings, the newly-appointed vice-chancellor of Loughborough University and formerly the UK Government’s first chief scientific advisor for National Security, told FE that while the UK ‘appears’ disconnected from the world due to Brexit, it is attracting more and more students from foreign countries, especially India and China.
In June 2022, the British High Commission had revealed that the UK had issued 117,965 sponsored study visas to Indian students in one year till June 2022, which was an increase of 215% compared to 2019 when only 37,396 sponsored study visas were issued. Second to India was China, with 115,056 study visas.
On a visit to India to explore collaborations with industry and academia (Bajaj Auto, IIT Delhi, IIT Mumbai and Symbiosis International University), Prof Jennings said Loughborough has a long history of welcoming students and faculty from India. “The first Indian student who graduated with us was in 1937. Today, we have a community of nearly 900 Indian students and in 2022 we saw over 600 new Indian enrolments,” he said. “India has now overtaken China as our largest international student group for postgraduate studies. The graduate entry route has obviously supported this growth in the number of Indian students coming to the UK as a whole.”
He added that Brexit has made the UK more open for international students. “India and the UK have close cultural and historic ties, in addition to the large Indian diaspora in the UK,” Prof Jennings said. “UK companies and universities are looking to increase the breadth and depth of their collaborations with India.”
He added that the world has numerous shared challenges and the Indian government has set strong leadership and a clear vision in looking to address these challenges. “This is where the UK can collaborate with Indian partners and industry, and provide Indian graduates with the further skills needed to make a difference to their country and society,” he said. “Priorities include sustainability and net zero, the development of renewable energy technology and electric vehicles, smart manufacturing and the circular economy, and the application of AI, big data and cybersecurity to enable effective solutions. Loughborough and other UK universities have proven expertise in all these fields.”
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