Studying in the United Kingdom (UK) is becoming increasingly popular among students from West Bengal and India because of the immense support offered by the British Council. In what can be considered as a holistic network, the organisation not only provides information to make career choices fruitful but also creates a network to keep in touch with the UK circles, peers as well as narrate inspiring stories for generations to follow. Kolkata recently hosted the Study UK Alumni Awards 2023 to celebrate UK Alumni in India at the Oberoi Grand Hotel.
My Kolkata caught up with Rittika Chanda Parruck, Director Education India, British Council, and Debanjan Chakrabarti, Director, British Council East and North East, on the sideline of the awards to talk more about the credibility of the UK as a preferred destination and the ever-growing alumni network.
UK the most sought-after destination for education
The UK has a very high quality education system and that, according to Parruck, is the simple reason for it being the most sought-after destination.
In the top 1,000 universities of the world, 95 are from the UK and around 18 of them are in London. “One of the most interesting things is that when you go to study in the UK, you go to study in the world because almost 226 countries send their students to study in the UK. You live in vibrant international campuses in a safe and secure way,” she said.
Rittika Chanda Parruck Soumyajit Dey
Parruck also added further that the format of UK education plays an important role. “The education provided by the UK universities is practice-based. The ways in which assignments are done or the number of industry-academia linkages that are there, helps a person get real life experience. It makes them very workplace-ready. It is a key feature of UK education.”
Trends in career choices
The pandemic years brought about marked differences in the world but Parruck has not noticed much changes in the choice of subjects. “There has not been a marked difference in the choices. But we have seen a slight trend in the growth of undergraduate students. We have seen growth in Humanities and new areas. One of the most interesting things about studying there is the range of choices that you get to pick from. Anecdotally we have heard of people going to study Sports, Psychology, Management and Fintech apart from the regular subjects.”
Providing a support base
The British Council helps candidates by supporting their ambition to get a UK qualification and experience and to actually go and study there at various levels. “On the one hand, we create university to university linkages where they are able to work out new trans-national educational arrangements. At another level, we are also training agents and councillors so that they are able to give top quality counselling to the young people. We hope the training that we provide will help them to give the best information to the young people. The candidates can come into our libraries or become a member of our digital libraries which provides a lot of opportunity to broaden their horizons as well,” Parruck said.
The alumni network, too, is a significant part of the British Council initiatives. “When you study in the UK you just don’t get a degree, you get a network, area of influence and mentorship. We are trying to get together all the young people who have studied in the UK to showcase their talents to make an impact in local communities and to support other candidates who are going by giving them real and first-hand experiences.”
Stressing on alums
Debanjan Chakrabarti pointed out that Indian students are now the largest international community on British campuses. “Hot off the press 1,44,000 visas have been given to Indian students. That is what drives our engagement with the alumni. The importance of alumni has been stressed at a very strategic level in a couple of documents and frameworks existing between India and UK. This year, we are winding down the India UK Together Season of Culture and it’s an opportunity for us to celebrate the achievement of our alumni. But it’s also the year of India’s G20 presidency where education is one of the most important tracks.”
Debanjan Chakrabarti Soumyajit Dey
What’s in it for the alums?
The alumni network is open to anyone who has studied at least six months from any UK university. “We have a virtual [alumni] platform and also city-based alumni chapters. The Kolkata chapter is a very robust one. I think it is a great networking platform. It brings together people from diverse fields of expertise. There lies the ability to network not in your city but across India and then through the digital platform network internationally. That extends the benefit of international education which is about global citizenship, openness; people to people connect, and furthering fields of knowledge. When people who have studied in the UK come back and network, they have the scope of not only professional development but also social and cultural engagement,” Chakrabarti said.
Elaborating on the cultural aspect, he mentioned how several cultural performances during the award were by UK alums. “For the alumni night we have a brilliant standup comedian, some very prominent sports people, music with connections with the UK, there are means to celebrate Indian diaspora that is a very important part. Within the alumni chapters there are a whole range of networking and social events that take place. For example, last weekend one of the most prominent UK alumni organised a heritage walk for the Indo-British Scholars Association members. Kolkata is a city which has strong and rich historical connections to the UK,” he said.
India-UK Together Campaign vis-a-vis education
“Togetherness is about the future. India and the UK are partners in research. The UK is India’s second largest bi-lateral research partner. That creates a kind of solid foundation for India and the UK collaborating on global challenges and problems. India-UK relation is one of the most important bilateral relationships of the 21st century. It is a relation which is for the greater global good and the alumni play a huge role in that.” said Chakrabarti.
For more information on the alumni network one can visit https://alumniuk.britishcouncil.org/