India-UK education ties to get a booster shot

It certainly promises to complement the ambitious vision set out in India's National Education Policy (NEP) to internationalise education and to create globally employable graduates. India and the UK will now officially recognise each other's academic qualifications. The mutual recognition of academic qualifications is bound to expand cooperation and exchange between the two countries' higher education systems, and boost opportunities for students in India and the UK. Just to give an example, Indian upper secondary qualifications will now be recognised as meeting entry requirements of higher education institutions in the UK and similarly UK Master's degrees will also now be formally recognised in India – enabling Indian graduates to apply for post-doctoral qualifications when they return home, something they were not able to do earlier. An agreement to this effect was signed by the two countries on July 21.

This has come at a time when there has been an increase in the number of Indian students opting to pursue their academics- higher education in the UK. For the full 2022 intake, a record number of Indian students enrolled in the UK universities. After China, India is the second-highest resource for international students in the UK.

In absolute numbers, this year 8,660 applicants applied for the Universities of UK. Last year, in 2021, 7,830 students had applied for the courses in the UK. The number of applicants in 2019 had been much less, with only 4,690 applicants applying. Overall, there were 6,05,130 international students are studying in the UK last year.

Similarly, the higher education-focused bilateral programme, UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI), which has 235 British students in India at present, aims to raise the number to 400. The students will be enrolled across graduate as well as post-graduate courses.

All types of educational courses taken together, 108,000 study visas were issued to Indian nationals in the year ending March 2022 alone. Indian students make up one of the UK's largest groups of international students and the mutual recognition of qualifications will benefit all past, present and future Indian graduates from the UK.

Interestingly, the UK has already started an initiative of shared admissions facilities for higher education. It is popularly known as UCAS or Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. It will begin the undergraduate courses in the UK from this September, that is, the fall season.

The latest agreement and subsequent development are expected to open doors for institutions to create courses that can be delivered in both countries. Mind you that UK universities offer an education that is rightly prized across the globe and this agreement will create more opportunities for Indian students to access their high-quality degree programmes, either by coming to study here in the UK or through new courses which different British universities will be able to deliver abroad. The UK and India are already important destinations for each other's students and this agreement will boost that even further.