In a landmark move, the UK and India signed an agreement to recognise each other’s higher education qualifications.
A-levels and their equivalents, undergraduate, and postgraduate degrees will now be recognised in India, it was agreed on July 21.
UK and India to recognise qualifications
The agreement will allow Indian students who graduate from British universities to apply for postgraduate qualifications when they return home or begin government careers that require university qualifications.
What does this mean for the UK?
The Memorandum of Understanding, which is part of the UK-India Enhanced Trade Partnership, was agreed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.
In 2020/21, 84,555 Indian students were welcomed to the UK to study, highlighting how popular it is as a destination already. The press release, published on Gov.uk, states that this agreement is likely to provide an economic boost as UK universities will become even more appealing to Indian applicants.
The benefit of welcoming non-EU students to UK universities is estimated to be around £109,000 per person, the release reveals.
A landmark agreement
Secretary of State for Education, James Cleverly, said that UK universities are ‘rightly’ the ‘envy of the world,’ with international education being one of our ‘finest exports.’
‘This agreement builds on our UK-India partnership and removes barriers so even more of the best and brightest students from India can study here, boosting our economy and enriching our campuses and communities,’ he explained.
Meanwhile, Barbara Wickham OBE, Director India, British Council, said: ‘The agreement of the mutual recognition of academic qualifications is a significant moment of celebration in the India-UK education relationship and will benefit thousands of young people and talented students in both countries.’
The ‘landmark’ agreement was described as ‘historic’ by Vivienne Stern MBA, the Chief Executive of Universities UK International. This agreement will make it easier for students to progress into education and move into jobs as qualifications will be recognised on both sides, Stern explained.