UK, India invested 75 million pounds for academic exchanges since 2006: Official

The United Kingdom and India have jointly invested over 75 million pounds in academic collaborations since 2006, effecting over 25,000 bilateral exchanges, an official said on June 22.

The bilateral investment, the biggest by any country with the UK in the recent past, has resulted in multiple policy dialogues and institutional partnerships, he said.

"The United Kingdom and India have jointly invested in over 75 million pounds in bilateral academic collaborations since 2006 in the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) project," British Council's East and North East India director Debanjan Chakrabarti told PTI.

Since 2006, the UKIEIRI has been operating in three phases in India, he said.

"During this time, the project has facilitated the collaboration of more than 100 industry partners, engaged 4,500 education institutes and facilitated 25,000 academic exchanges between the UK and India," he said.

In the Northeast alone, Chakrabarti said, 10 live partnerships have been made - two under scheme for promotion of academic and research collaboration (SPARC) and eight under Research & Innovation with institutes like Dibrugarh University in Assam, IIT-Guwahati and Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST).

The third phase of the UKIEIRI, which has been running since 2017, will focus on capacity building, research and partnerships, besides skill development in higher education, the British Council official added.