U.K. students say they love it here

Students dancing during a programme at the British Council in New Delhi on Friday. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar.

“We are mostly the same and we like the same things, the only difference is that here the students are more free in the sense that they do not have the burden of education loans,” says Rebecca Pattison, one of the 200 students from the United Kingdom, who is here on a goodwill visit to universities across the country.

The students made their way to Delhi University and some management institutes in the city. Visiting the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbaihas made Daniel Myers truly believe that you have to be much smarter and work that much harder to get into a decent college in India.

“Back home you can get into a decent university with average scores, but here I spoke to some students and the competition is so much tougher. In spite of this, I see that students are more positive in contrast to a certain pessimism that has made its presence felt among many students back in the U.K,” he says, adding that the Taj Mahal, a long-dreamed of destination, did not disappoint and that he intends to stay back a while longer since he just graduated from Business School and is free to do as he likes.

“Unfortunately college starts for me in a month or so, and I have to leave though I have been invited to a friend’s wedding here in India and I intend to come,” adds Rebecca, who admitted that when she was accepted for the programme she had no friends among the group.

“I was the only one from my university, but I was too excited to care,” she said, adding that meeting Mark Tully and Kapil Dev was another plus point to the whole trip, which was “almost perfect”.

The event was brought to an end with a song and dance, but not before some speeches. There was British High Commissioner Sir James Bevan, who listed 10 reasons as to why a student from the U.K. needs to come to study in India. Currently around 20,000 students from India study in the U.K. and their hope was that this number could be reciprocated. The exchange programme was organised by the UK India Education and Research Initiative. It is managed by Indogenius and Delhi University.