UK govt to offer more scholarships under Chevening, GREAT schemes

The British government has increased the range of its scholarships under the international scholarship schemes, Chevening and GREAT, for the 2014/15 and 2015/16 academic years.

The Chevening core budget that was announced in March this year included trebling the funding for Chevening scholarships in developing countries in 2014/15 and an assurance of further expansion in 2015/16.

Andrew Soper, Counsellor (Prosperity), British High Commission, New Delhi, said, "We hope to offer opportunities to India's future leaders, decision makers and opinion formers. Areas where we hope to offer scholarships and short-term fellowships in the future include health, energy, finance - promoting Indo-UK political, economic and commercial interests. Over 2500 scholars have already been supported by the Chevening India programme so far over the past 30 years."

For the first time, in collaboration with India's leading IT company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), it started the Chevening TCS Cyber Security course last year to contribute to public policy on cyber security.

This course is held at Cranfield University at the Defence Academy of the UK, from February till May. The other scholarships it offers include The Gurukul Leadership Programme, Chevening Program to Indian Parliamentarians, among others.

For a fully paid one-year masters programme, it has selected 30 Indian students this year. "This is a 10-fold increase which might increase next year. India is one of the world's emerging economies, and we would like to strengthen our bilateral relationship in the areas of education, skill development, research and innovation. We are also trying to bust the myth that Indian students don't get visas to study in the UK. In 2013, 84 per cent of Indian students who applied got their visas," Soper added.   

Besides, the UK government also aims to increase GREAT Scholarships given by the British Council from 370 (announced in November 2013) to 500 this year. To counter the competition from other countries that are advertising in India and to give clarity on higher education in the UK, this campaign will conduct events across India in metros, tier-2 and tier-3 cities. The UK funds more scholarships for India than for any other country.

Richard Everitt, Director (education & society), British Council Division, British High Commission, said, "The total campaign cost is about 1.5 million GBP that will continue till March next year."

There will be more such announcements from the British government with the new government in India.