UK Government applauds 'remarkable' rise of Indian students in country

The United Kingdom government applauded the 'remarkable' rise in the number of Indian students being granted visas to study at British universities over the past year. The Office for National Statistics revealed that there was a hike of 63 per cent of Indian students in Britain. Nearly 30,550 Indian students received a Tier 4 Study Visa for the year ending September 2019, which is more than 18,730 in the previous year. The overall data released indicates that in the last decade, around 270,000 students have chosen the UK for higher education from India.The UK High Commissioner to India said that this was the third consecutive year in which the numbers have escalated. 

"This is now the third consecutive year in which the numbers have increased. It is important to us because these young leaders of tomorrow will reinforce the living bridge that connects India and the UK," said Sir Dominic Asquith, the UK High Commissioner to India. 

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The most common non-British country

Director India of British Council, Barbara Wickham hailed the growth of Indian students in Britain along with the 'great collaboration' between Indian and UK higher education sectors which also ensures that education is the key in the relationship between both the countries. Even the latest visa statistics reflected that UK was popular among Indian holidaymakers with nearly 512,000 Indian nationals being granted a tourist visa during the same period. Tourist visas also witnessed an increase of nine per cent as compared to last year. India also continues to be at the top in the number of skilled workers, the Tier 2 visas granted by the British government has seen a rise with 56,241 from 55,136.

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(With PTI inputs)