E-Paper
UK seeks to better academic ties with India
The United Kingdom would initiate a programme to support educational interaction between centres of excellence in India and Britain.
The United Kingdom would initiate a programme to support educational interaction between centres of excellence in India and Britain.
The programme intends to improve academic exchanges between the two countries with an intended investment of 10 million pounds in the next 5 years.
The UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) involves a 10 million pound investment by the UK government over the next five years, with an anticipated similar funding from the private sector, British Deputy High Commissioner in Southern India Mike Connor said.
The programme would also cover joint education schemes between the two nations, he said while addressing a gathering at the "Indo-UK technical Workshop on Next Generation Communication Networks" at IIT Madras.
"We are hoping that this initiative will encourage students from the UK to spend time in India," he remarked adding the number of Indian students in UK is more than 17,000 while British students' in India is less than 1,000.
As a part of this exercise, workshops are being planned in Delhi in March this year, to introduce the programmes in India.
On being quizzed whether a Memorandum of Understanding would be signed by the academia in UK with those in India, the Deputy High Commissioner said that it would be an initiative that will have to be taken by each individual university.
The overall intention is the establishment of a three to five year joint research programme in the area of Converged Next Generation Communications. A Technical Advisory Group of leading scientists from both countries will identify, prioritise and develop these opportunities.
