British Council offers 600 scholarships for Indians to study in UK

The British Council has announced over 600 scholarships this year for Indian students aspiring to study in the United Kingdom.

There are 401 scholarships under the GREAT Britain Scholarships 2015, in addition to 130 scholarships under the Chevening scholarship programme. There are also about 75 Commonwealth scholarships funded by the UK government. The scholarships are being offered for various courses beginning from engineering, law to art and design. As many as 57 institutions in the UK across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Island are part of this programme.

As part of this, a one-day education fair of more than 50 UK universities was organised at Vivanta by Taj here. The GREAT Britain scholarships are worth 1.51 million pounds, according to officials in the Council. Scholarships are open for the September 2015 and January 2016 admissions. The Chevening-UK government’s global scholarship programme for future leaders are fully funded scholarships by Foreign and Commonwealth office and partner organisations for one-year Master’s degree as well as for short-term executive programmes mid-career professionals.

Announcing the scholarships here on Monday, Bharat Joshi, British Deputy High Commissioner, Chennai, said they were looking for the brightest of the bright students for Chevening scholarships.

Universities are targeting Indian students as they are good students, the Deputy High Commissioner added. The country is keen on strengthening joint research with India. The amount invested in joint research has also gone up. In 2010, the money invested in UK-India joint research was £1 million, while today, it has gone up to £150 million, Joshi told mediapersons.

According to the Council, the Chevening scholarships have been running in India for around 30 years and the UK government plans to quadruple its funding for the same for two years. The UK government hopes to increase the investment from £0.6 million in 2013-14 to £2.4m in 2015-16. This would make India the largest recipient of the scholarship in the world. It is not just about Indian students going to the UK, the Council is looking at strengthening the exchange programme through Generation UK that aims at bringing over 25,000 students from the UK to India in the next five years. According to the Council officials, the objective of this initiative is to promote India as a destination for study and work experience.