Seven students of the Government Arts College, Coimbatore, are going to London for their higher studies. All the expenses of these students will be met with by the Tamil Nadu state government.

The Tamil Nadu Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2013 with the British universities for sending financially backward students studying in government colleges in the state for higher studies in London. Accordingly each year, 25 students and five members of the faculty from the government colleges are selected and sent for higher studies in London universities. Their expenses will be paid by the government. Each student is allotted Rs.15 lakhs by the Government for higher study in London.

For the academic year of 2015-16, the Tamil Nadu Higher Education Council had conducted four rounds of qualifying tests for the students of the 67 government colleges in the state. English skills of the qualifying students were tested. The ones who had cleared this round were given further training in English. Finally, 25 students and five teachers have been selected.

Among the 25 students, seven are from the Government Arts College, Coimbatore – M.Sc. (Chemistry) students Valli and Tharanika will study in Sheffield Harlem University; Karthikasree of M.Sc. (Chemistry) and Deepa and Arun Kumar of Botany group will study in Nottingham University; M.Com student Sridhar will go to Wolver Hampton University, and English group student Shahin Nazeer will join the Angelia Ruskin University in London.

Karthikasree, one of the chosen students, thanked the government and said that the scheme is a blessing for those from the middle-class families who could only dream of studying abroad. Moreover, the course is based more on practical sessions and she hopes that the London Universities will give them sufficient exposure.

All these students are going to study their third semester at the London Universities for five months in their respective PG departments. These students are scheduled to fly to London on September 19.