Professor Anthony Forster, Vice-Chancellor, University of Essex, a Special Advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on matters related to EU, discusses about the response of Indian students to Brexit.
Q. How is Brexit effecting Indian student’s decision in choosing UK as a study destination?
We have seen strong growth across all our courses for the past two years despite Brexit including our peaks of excellence in the Social Sciences and Data Analytics. We are seeing incredible interest from Indian students for our courses where we have just added an integrated one year work placement into our Masters degrees in Data Science, Curating, Economics, Accounting and Banking and Commercial and Business Law. These options are proving really popular with Indian applicants, with around 50 percent of all our applications from India linked to these new programmes.
Q. What significant changes do you see in the global education system over the last decade or so?
I believe these international networks offer many benefits including allowing you to link up with like-minded institutions, researchers and student communities; bringing universities together to offer multinational educational experiences to students; building multinational research teams; and opening up funding opportunities. So far we have successfully developed joint degree programmes and collaborations in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, and are currently developing our partnerships in India.
Q. Please tell us about your journey in the field of Political Science.
I became the sixth Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex in 2012. I was originally inspired to study politics and have an enduring interest in it, through an interest in the distribution of power – in ‘who gets what, when and how’. Following a first degree in Politics from the University of Hull and a commission in the Army, I read for an MPhil and a DPhil in European Politics at the University of Oxford. I then held posts first at the University of Nottingham and then at King’s College London, before joining the University of Bristol as Professor of Politics and International Relations where I was Head of the Department of Politics from 2004 to 2006.
My move to Durham University saw me take up the post of Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health, before I moved on to the role Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) then Deputy Vice-Chancellor in 2011. As an academician I’ve always been equally committed to excellence in research and education. My public service commitments in the UK include chairing the independent government review of the Defense Advisory Notice (D Notice) System, a voluntary system established to limit the inadvertent media disclosure of information where release would pose a risk to life or to national security (2014-15). I’ve also been a Special Advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on the European UnionCommon Foreign and Security Policy.
We also welcome students from Chevening, UK STEM Scholarships which was launched in December 2018 for female applicants, the Commonwealth Masters Scholarships, the UK India Education Research Initiative (UKERI), the Newton- Bhabha Fund and the British Council’s GREAT Scholarships.
Q. What kind of scholarships are available for Indian students?
We are now calling, alongside other UK universities, for a two year post-study work visa to be offered. We are working with other universities to lobby for this to happen and we are optimistic the UK Government is listening to us. I am sure India will be an even more important partner for the UK after Brexit. Ahead of Brexit, we have seen skilled (Tier 2) visas allowing international workers to live and work in the UK increase 15 percent between 2017 and 2018. This includes a big increase in visas for Indian nationals and they received more visas to work in the UK than every other country in the world combined.
Q. What are the job opportunities for Indian students in the UK?
We have a whole range of scholarships especially created for Indian students. Our Indian sub-continent Regional Scholarship scheme offers £4,000 scholarships to eligible undergraduate students from India. Our Academic Excellence International Masters Scholarship scheme offers £3-5,000 tuition fee discounts to high achieving Masters students from India. We also regularly welcome students who have secured scholarships through other programmes including Chevening, UK STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Scholarships which was launched in December 2018 for female applicants in STEM areas, the Commonwealth Masters Scholarships, the UK India Education Research Initiative (UKERI), the Newton-Bhabha Fund and the British Council’s GREAT Scholarships.
