As many as 25,000 students and faculty from the United Kingdom will study in various institutions in India over the next five years in what is termed as one of the attempts by the U.K. to build on the long standing relationship it has with India.

Also, India and the U.K. will jointly observe 2017 as the ‘Year of Culture’ as decided by PM Narendra Modi and former British Prime Minister David Cameron. This and many more initiatives will help “India get to where it wants to be”, according to the first ever Indian origin British Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai, Bharat Joshi.

Mr. Joshi, on a visit to Coimbatore, said in an interaction that the U.K. was on a mission to reach out and collaborate with a maximum number of Indian people below the age of 25 to arrive at global solutions to the world’s problems.

Responding to a question on the economic scenario in the aftermath of Brexit, Mr. Joshi said, “The U.K. believes that India is moving very fast. It is our second largest investor. To say the U.K. economy is not doing great is not right. It is resilient and stable and has become much more attractive than it was two months ago.”

Elaborating on the job opportunities in the U.K. the Deputy High Commissioner said that the permission to stay back after a course and work was abused. Nevertheless, as many as 6,000 foreign nationals had been employed in 2015.

It was a fallacy that higher education in the U.K. was expensive, while in reality it offered best value for money. Four out of the world’s 10 best universities were in the U.K. and the courses offered were “cheaper and more intense”. UG course was for three years and a PG was for a year. Almost nine out of 10 applicants got selected for student visas, he asserted.

He was however not satisfied with the response from Coimbatore for the various scholarships, including the Chevening, offered by the U.K. Government. “There are 65 Chevening scholarships, another 65 fellowships for mid-career professionals. Last year we did not get even a single applicant from Coimbatore. I want to get across the message that such scholarships should be applied for in large numbers.”

Stressing that there were no restrictions for Muslims to enter the U.K. if they met the requisite eligibility criteria, Mr. Joshi said that it applied to all those who applied for a visa. While 92 per cent of visitor visa applications was cleared, the eight percent denied were those who had forged / insufficient documents.