The High Commission of India in London organised a welcome event for newly arrived Indian students to offer them insights and advice on life in the UK and to extend support as their “home away from home”.
At the conclusion of a registration drive supported with free warm meals by the Akshaya Patra charity, India House in London played host to hundreds of students on Tuesday evening with several also joining virtually from universities around the UK.
A session on CV writing, timings and pitfalls of job placements, financial literacy and common scam warnings, and mental health advice were among the aspects covered during the event.
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“It will be very different from being in India, many of you are for the first time entirely on your own and that’s a great opportunity but a measure of responsibility is also important,” said Indian High Commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami, in his address.
“As young Indians, you are going to be the future of what India’s journey will be. Keep that eye back home at India because the speed at which things are changing, the speed at which opportunities are coming is second to none," he said.
"There will be opportunities arising in India that you can capture for yourself...we are very keen to build a range of mechanisms with your universities so that will enable us to take young British students to India for short courses and maybe with partnerships that you will build with them, you could build the next generation of new start-ups coming out as Indo-British partnership enterprises,” he added.
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Indians now make up the largest cohort of international students coming for higher studies at UK universities, with the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data revealing 138,532 sponsored study visa grants to Indian nationals in year ending March 2023 – an increase of 53,429 (+63 per cent) compared to year ending March 2022.
“In any issues that you face, feel free to seek advice from the team at the High Commission and other experts so that you can plan your time in the best way possible. This High Commission is your home away from home,” said Amish Tripathi, Minister – Culture & Education at the Indian High Commission and Director of the Nehru Centre in London.
"As far as we are concerned, the religion you practice, the region you are from, the language you speak, the community you are from, the caste and even political ideologies you practice in India, they make no difference. If you are an Indian, you are one of us," he said.
At the end of last month, the Indian mission at Aldwych in London and consulates in Birmingham and Edinburgh had opened up kiosks for newly arrived students from India as part of a safety initiative which concluded on Monday to register their presence in the country.
