Exeter Vice-Chancellor joins high level delegation in India

Professor Smith, along and other university leaders, was invited by the Prime Minister to join the UK delegation to India. The delegation also included Business Secretary Dr. Vince Cable and Universities and Science Minister David Willetts.

Professor Smith noted that the scale of UK university activity in India was second to none. He also emphasised that this collaborative activity was about far more than student recruitment. This collaboration, he said, is about boosting the university systems and economic competitiveness of both countries.

Speaking after yesterday's meeting in Delhi, Professor Smith said: "We have been very impressed by the scale of the expansion in India's higher education system and are very pleased to be building upon the existing institutional links between UK and Indian HE institutions. Higher education is an integral means of deepening and broadening this important bilateral relationship with India.

"UK universities are already engaged in many forms of long-term teaching and research partnerships. But, as the Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has said, there is still more our two sectors could be doing together.  

"I now look forward to returning in November with the Minister and a delegation of vice-chancellors in order to discuss further the means of increasing the level of university partnership activity between our two countries. We will be watching with interest the passage of the Foreign Education Providers Bill through (the Indian) parliament and also keenly await developments on the 14 innovation universities announced by the Government of India."
 
The University of Exeter is developing deepening relations with leading Indian universities; the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc-B); the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B); and the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS). The University of Exeter hopes these relationships will  facilitate the movement of researchers between Exeter and Bangalore and identify joint funding opportunities.  Faculty at the University of Exeter Business School are collaborating with counterparts at IIM-B in the areas of service science; leadership studies; supply chain management; and social networks.