The State government may soon host students from the UK on its campuses with the latter planning to send at least 25,000 of its students to visit and study in India by 2020 to expose them to the industrial climate here for their businesses.
The first step towards this was taken when the Secretary of Higher Education, Andhra Pradesh, Sumita Dawra visited some UK universities recently. Ms. Dawra visited Birmingham University, Manchester University, Loughborough University and Liverpool University and interacted with the officials for possible collaborate programmes. “The University of Liverpool is keen on starting a campus in India and we invited them to visit Andhra Pradesh,” she disclosed to this correspondent. The government also wants to involve private institutions like GITAM, KL University and Siddhartha College.
Collaborative programmes
“Several colleges in A.P. have collaborative programmes with China and similar model will be explored,” Ms. Dawra pointed out.
A workshop organised by the State government on ‘Opportunities for Partnerships between A.P. and UK Universities’ on Tuesday further discussed the ideas on internationalising higher education in A.P.
Opportunities for dual degrees
Ms. Mei Kwei Barker, Director, South India, British Council elaborated on the identification of opportunities for partnerships between A.P. and UK universities while Eldho Mathews, Head, Internationalising Higher Education, British Council, South India, explained the opportunities for dual degrees in undergraduate and postgraduate engineering. He asked A.P. engineering colleges to understand existing models and invited expressions of interest for the British Council to share with UK universities.
Vice-Chancellors and Principals of various institutions discussed the scope and opportunities for providing the research in collaboration with UK universities. B. Udayalakshmi, Commissioner of Technical and Collegiate Education and Manjula Rao, Assistant Director, Internationalising Higher Education, British Council, also spoke.
The University of Liverpool is keen on starting a campus in India and we invited them to visit State
Sumita Dawra
Secretary of Higher Education
