B'lore an exceptional option for academics: Scottish team

West view

Delegates from six Scottish universities, along with the British Council, Scotland, discussed future academic and business prospects with leading finance and business colleges of Bangalore over a ‘networking dinner conference’ on Tuesday.

The Scottish government has made it a point to focus on academic initiatives in tier-II and tier-III cities of the country.

“Bangalore is our only exception. It would be foolish to leave aside this city as it is the hub of business and education, so I had to push for Bangalore,” said Liz Speake, Manager, Education UK Scotland.

Tier two cities

The delegation is on a three-day visit to India, with Ahmedabad being its next destination. Ahmedabad was chosen from a list of tier-II cities which included Coimbatore, Trivandrum, Bhubaneshwar and Chandigarh.

Internships, PhD programmes, faculty and student exchange programmes can be expected to start from September. Institute of Business Management and Technology (IBMT) is one of the institutions to partner with Scottish counterparts.

Pivotal option

Anil Rawat, Director, says that although tier-II cities will prove to be profitable for Scotland, Bangalore is an important option.

“There is no better environment for such purposes than Bangalore. Affordability of parents and per capita income is highest in Bangalore,” he said.

Rawat added that student exchange programme would not be an easy task in the long run, as there are a huge number of Indians already in Scottish universities.

On being asked whether there will be new Scottish consulates similar to that of Switzerland in Bangalore, Liz said, “I am not authorised to talk about it. But as far as I know, there will only be the current four.”

Alliance Business School, RV Institute of Management and Christ University are few of the other institutions from Bangalore which participated in the programme.