Rama Krishna Sangem
The UK-India Partnership in higher education is going from strength-to-strength and it has a massive potential to grow further, said Gareth Wynn Owen, British Deputy High Commissioner in Hyderabad here on March 12, Wednesday.
He was speaking at an event to promote educational cooperation between the UK and Telangana & Andhra Pradesh. Gareth looks after the UK consulate affairs for these two Telugu speaking states.
“Over the last 3 years, more Indian students are choosing the UK as their first choice for international education. Indian students are attracted by the quality of the UK’s education system, 4 universities are in the global top 10, and the fact that UK universities are some of the most international in the world, offering fantastic student experiences combined with a large breadth and variety of subjects to study. The opportunity to work in the UK for 2 years post-graduation, to put into practice what they learnt, is also important,” he said.
“I strongly believe education should be 2-way, and therefore it’s very exciting that we are seeing many UK universities who are planning to come into India and open campuses here. In August, Southampton University will open its doors to the first UK campus in India, and we are seeing a huge increase in the number of post-graduate and master’s level courses that are being developed jointly by UK and Indian institutions,” he said.
India’s large population and fast-growing economy, means the higher education sector is critical to produce an educated workforce and highly skilled individuals to sustain this growth. In the UK, we have our own vision for growth and together the UK and India have a huge potential to strengthen partnerships in the education sector.
Schooling to skilling
“In both the Telugu states, we are working with key stakeholders to forge stronger links, from schooling through to higher education and skilling. In December, I co-chaired a roundtable with Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education. It brought together public and private universities in Andhra, with 7 British universities to discuss partnerships. Manchester Metropolitan University and Woxsen University have already launched a dual degree in Design. This month, we are holding a similar roundtable with the Telangana State Council of Higher Education”.
“With the British Council, we are working with a number of UK universities to explore establishing overseas campuses in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The Universities are attracted by the existing strong education ecosystems, quality of students and the governments’ ambitions to establish international education zones in Hyderabad and Amaravati”.
Every year, 700,000 to 800,000 Indian students go abroad to study. This is creating a demand for premium education in India, fuelling the growth of international [GO3] curriculums. We have seen phenomenal growth in the Telugu states, with IB programmes and the Cambridge curriculum schools growing more than 50 -60 % in the last 8 years. Last year, with Novistra Education, we arranged a scoping visit of 4 British schools to Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai & New Delhi. Partnership successes in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are not restricted to education.
In January this year, the University of Leicester and Apollo University established joint global research centres focused on digital health and precision medicine, whilst Liverpool University and Fernandez Hospital launched women’s health research partnership. These recent announcements follow the signings last year of MoU strengthening collaborations between Coventry University and GITAM University, and Institute of Medicine, Bolton University and KIM’s hospital group
8 Varsities Telangana participate
Besides Gareth, Telangana State Council of Higher Education chairman Balakrishna Reddy too was present on the occasion. Representatives from 6 Universities from the UK – Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Birmingham, Heriot-watt University, University of Middlesex, University of Reading, University of Sunderland, University of Wolverhampton too were present.
8 Universities from Telangana – Osmania University, Kakatiya University, Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies, Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Vellore Institute of Technology, Woxen University, Stanley College of Engineering were there at the event at Taj Deccan on 12th March 2025. Picture by: SNAPS INDIA
