The British Council, the international organisation of the UK for cultural relations and educational opportunities, organised the annual Education UK Exhibition at Hotel Gateway here on Sunday with many local students and parents visiting the stalls enquiring about various higher educational opportunities in UK universities.
Representatives of nearly 21 UK universities provided information and clarified doubts in one on one interaction with the students. Most queries from the candidates aspiring for higher education were related to the post graduate courses in business administration, engineering and pharmacy courses. Some students also made enquiries about under graduate courses and integrated courses in engineering.
The universities that set up stalls at the exhibition included the University of Abertay Dundee, University of Bedfordshire, Birmingham City University, University of Central Lancashire, University of Chester, University of East London, Edge Hill University, University of Glamorgan, Liverpool John Moores University, London Metropolitan University and so on.
“The response from Indian students is good. We are offering scholarships to good students,” said Jon Peach, international assistant of London South Bank University. In their university, most Indian students would join MBA course followed by engineering, pharmacy, law and biotechnology courses.
Mr. Peach said that their MBA course held a lot of international demand as the students would stand to gain in terms of exposure and wide placement opportunities. Diversity of students in their university with many countries being represented was one of the reasons for the success of the MBA course. “In our university, we have 2,000 international students. Of them nearly 500 are Indian students. Students from China and India are more in number,” he added.
PG level
L. Dhanasekaran, head of Education UK, South India, said that the Indian students were choosing to do specialised courses at the PG level in the UK rather than going there early for enrolling into under graduate courses.
Besides the cost factor, it was the availability of quality courses in Indian universities at the UG level that prevented students from opting for these courses in the UK. Mr. Dhanasekaran said that the duration of MBA courses in the UK was just one year even as the quality of the programmes was known internationally.
