The agreement, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), outlines an agreement to mutually recognise qualifications from each country. This will enable students from both countries to access education in each country. This development is part of the 2030 India-UK Roadmap in which India outlines its National Education Policy to internationalise education and to create globally employable graduates.

As UK and Indian listeners of The Indian’s Guide to Studying Abroad Podcast will appreciate, this will make studying in each country much easier and remove the barrier around qualification equivalency many students faced when wishing to study in India and the UK. Higher education institutions in both countries will also benefit from the knowledge exchange, research and teaching collaboration opportunities.

So, what does this mean for Indian students wishing to study in the UK?

The agreement is groundbreaking in that A-levels and equivalent qualifications, undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, including bachelors, masters and doctoral qualifications will now be recognised by institutions across both countries, without the need for complex and lengthy discussions about whether they would be ‘accepted’ by the institution receiving the student. For Indians, this means that upper secondary qualifications will be recognised as meeting the entry requirements of higher education institutions in the UK. A UK master’s degree will also now be formally recognised in India enabling Indian graduates to apply for post-doctoral qualifications when they return home; something they were previously unable to do.

The presenters of The Indian’s Guide to Studying Abroad Podcast are particularly excited as they, and the higher education institution they work for, have excellent links with India and they are already planning courses that can be delivered in both countries

However, for our listeners and others reading this post, it is important to note that the MoU excludes certain courses: namely, professional degrees in the fields of engineering, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, law, and architecture. Qualifications such as those awarded by branch campuses and those that are gained either partially or fully online will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, so advice is best sought from an agent (click here for our recommendation).

The UK has always been one of the top destinations for Indian students wishing to study abroad, but with Covid, post-study work visa changes and universities in Canada, Australia and the US increasing their activities in India, recruitment has dropped but is sure to increase with this new agreement. This will also result in more staff and student exchange visits and the development of knowledge for the equal benefit of populations and businesses.

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Those who were studying overseas when the pandemic took hold in March 2020 and international lockdowns and travel restrictions began, would have had to make the difficult decision to remain in the country where they were studying or return home.

What happened in March 2020?

In the UK, University courses were in full swing, so much if not all teaching moved online. Whilst many Indian students studying in the UK who were living in halls of residence or private accommodation, were supported by the institutions they were studying at, they were far away from family connections and wider support; many made the difficult and costly decision to return home as soon as possible.

Laila was one such student, she posted on social media that she was ready to “enjoy the famous British summer” when her plans were shattered by Coronavirus. She paid for a return flight to India and managed to get home before the national lockdown and travel ban took hold.

Universities did what they could to limit the impact on students’ learning – they replaced exams with assessments and coursework that could be completed online and gave students additional time to complete their work. However, what they could not replace was the interaction with British students and students from other countries, and they could not replace the wider opportunities to explore all that the UK has to offer. The same applied to Indian students studying in other popular countries such as Australia, the USA, Canada and European countries.

The impact in the new academic year

At time of writing (September 2020) the virus remains with us and does not look like it is disappearing anytime soon, so Indian students who had made plans to study abroad have had to make some difficult decisions. For some, the attraction of studying abroad will ensure they overcome any doubts and, government policy permitting, they will continue on their academic journey to study aboard. But for others, the risks mean they have to consider if overseas study is for them, or perhaps take an online programme.

As a result of the ongoing situation with Coronavirus (COVID-19), we have updated our FREE study abroad checklist and included sections that covers these issues. Those who are on our mailing list will have received the updated copy, but if you haven’t downloaded it yet, you can grab a copy now by entering your details in the pop-up box that appears on the site or by signing up to our newsletter. Experiencing problems downloading it? You can find further details in this article: http://thestudyabroadshow.com/get-your-free-copy-of-the-study-abroad-checklist/

Our recommendations to reduce the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on your studies abroad

In light of the current situation with Coronavirus (COVID-19) we recommend you complete this checklist or revisit it as it will help ensure you are fully prepared for overseas study.

You may also be interested in this related article: 5 reasons why people study abroad – which is yours?

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Studying abroad, and choosing the right course and institution, is not an easy task, so we wanted to help students who wish to study abroad by providing them with a range of free resources. With over 40 years of combined knowledge and experience working with students from India and other countries we have helped hundreds of students to study abroad.

We’ve worked with students both during the application and admissions process, we have taught them on their undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and supported them to find employment once they have graduated.

Our podcast – The Indian’s Guide to Studying Abroad – and the accompanying resources on our website www.TheStudyAbroadShow.com will help, guide and direct you if you are at the application stage, if you are already studying or if you have completed your studies and are now looking for employment.

SUBSCRIBE to our podcast. It’s easy to do, just hit the ‘subscribe’ button on your podcast listening platform. 

SIGN UP for our newsletter so you can be the first to hear about new articles, podcasts and updates for Indian’s wishing to study abroad, those who are currently studying abroad or those who have completed their studies abroad.

DOWNLOAD our FREE study abroad checklist – a comprehensive guide that will help you with every step of your decision making.

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Even though there are so many great universities and courses in India, and the option to study an overseas course online is easier than ever, students are still interested in studying abroad. In this article, we focus on the obvious question but it’s one that we assume many people who study abroad would have thought about, but in our experience, they often have not and by not fully understanding the reasons and beginning their journey not having done this research, it can be a costly mistake. 

With so many great universities in India, we asked ourselves this question too: so, why should you study overseas? We identified 5 key reasons.

Reason #1. The course or university is highly regarded

Our time is precious, every time we decide to do something, we are making a decision not to do something else: some alternative thing that we could have done with our time.  If you choose to spend your time studying abroad, you will want to make sure you make the best use of your time and choose a course that you are going to get the best out of. 

For many who have the opportunity to study abroad, gaining any overseas qualification is fine, but for others, it has to be the right course and at the right university.  This decision is either down to the status of the university or the course, and in other cases it’s because the course is accredited by a professional body which means you can practice in that country or it could even be because it is a specialist course that very few universities offer.

Take your time deciding which course and institution to study at – do not simply opt for the course that you have been directed to look at, or one that your friend or another family member attended.

Reason #2. Connection to a country

You may have a connection with a particular country or have heard great things about the institution and have always longed to study there. It may be a place you have always wanted to visit, and perhaps eventually live and work in – so why not visit, live and study there at the same time. 

Arianna Huffington, the co-founder of The Huffington Post, in a recent interview about her life, indicated that she dreamed of studying at Cambridge after she saw a picture of it.  At the time she was living in Greece and could not speak English, but this did not deter her – she was determined to succeed.  She studied at Cambridge and went on to become a highly successful author, columnist and businesswoman.

In some cases, the country or city that you wish to study in is the central hub for the business you wish to enter. For example, Silicon Valley in the USA for IT, Milan in Italy for fashion, and London for many courses, but business, law and architecture to name but a few.

You may also have personal, family or business connections with a country, so if you studied there you would have a support network you could draw upon.

Reason #3. Investment in education

It’s the sad truth, that regardless of the quality of the course, an overseas qualification often holds greater value with employers in India. 

There’s an assumption amongst many Indian employers we have spoken to that quality systems in institutions abroad may be better; this includes the way students are taught and the rigour of the assessment process and the expectations.  In part this is because courses in places such as England are overseen by a regulator –  the Office for Students (OfS) – so employers can be assured of the quality of learning that has taken place. 

In the UK, universities and institutions that offer professionally accredited or vocational programmes include medicine, law, architecture, accountancy, civil engineering – may not allow overseas students onto their programmes due to the conditions that the accredited bodies apply on them, so it is best to check with them before applying.  This is one example where an education advisor can be particularly useful.

Education is an investment and your choice of course and place of study will depend on the funds available to you.  For many Indian students, the investment in a child’s education is also an investment for the family, so the decision to study abroad will be a wider one that involves the decision makers of the family.

Reason #4. Financial ability

Studying abroad can be costly, in fact it will almost certainly cost you more than studying in India, due to the course fees, living and travel costs.  The opportunity for Indians to study abroad is clearly one for the privileged few, so is dependent on your family’s ability to fund your studies abroad. 

For some families, a child holding a qualification from an overseas university will be prestigious and put the family in higher regard.  This can bring kudos to the family so many do what they can to raise funds to send a child abroad as this will increase their child’s marriage prospects upon return. However, many such families may also borrow money that they eventually have to pay back, so there may be a lot of pressure on the child to secure a well-paid job after graduation, and regardless of how good the course or university is, a successful career can never be guaranteed.

Reason #5. Independence

Higher education study comes at a time in a young person’s life when they are looking to explore themselves and their interests, living away from home is one of the ways that they can do this. 

As many Indian families still live in extended joint families, this gives young people little space for the freedom to explore their interests and understand themselves.  Studying abroad can offer them space and time to develop, grow and learn about themselves.  However, this requires confidence and an ability to look after oneself, so if you are considering study abroad, carefully consider how your personality will be suited to this.

Know your reasons?

All of these reasons will result in factors that pull or draw you to studying abroad or they may make you consider twice about taking up such an opportunity and push you away from the idea.

To help you understand your reasons write a list of what is pulling, drawing or attracting you to study abroad, and what is giving you reservations, or pulling you away from the idea.  Take the time to write these down, as seeing them on paper will help you decide, and you can keep referring back to this list in those moments when you might forget why you ever chose to study abroad.

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One of the areas that top universities will judge your application on is your personal statement.  Your personal statement is the section in the application where you essentially sell yourself to the university and let them know why they should offer you one of their limited places on their programmes.  Whilst the number of places on courses has generally increased across the world, there are some courses where applications outnumber the places available. 

To ensure your application to study on a programme is noticed and secures you one of the limited places available, consider these five questions when writing your personal statement.

1. Why are you applying for this course…and why this university?

It comes as no surprise that this is the first thing you should be thinking about when you write your personal statement. However, some applicants jump straight into a list of their previous studies and forget to say why they are applying for a particular course and why they chose to apply to that particular university in the first place. 

Your application statement is your opportunity to tell the admissions officer or course leader just how much you value their course and university – tell them what is good about the programme and what drew you to it.  There’s a psychological reason why this is important.

As Dale Carnegie stated in his book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” – “A person’s name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language” – something he surely borrowed from Shakespeare who indicated that “the most beautiful sound a person can hear in a lifetime is his or her name.” So, drawing on this wisdom, when you reflect back positively to the person who represents an organisation or who runs a programme it is clearly going to affect your professional success.

So, start your statement with a few sentences that answer this question and the reader will warm to you and is more likely to offer you a place.

Remember to also tell them makes you special, unique and sets you apart from other applicants.  For example, you may be the first one in your household to have gone to university, so this will be a great opportunity not only for you but your family too, or you may have already been doing some work in this area and this course will help you draw on the knowledge you have gained in practice, and enhance the learning experience for all by sharing it with your peers in class.

2. Why this course?

Talk about the strengths of the course and how it addresses a gap in your knowledge or skills. To do this effectively, you’re going to have to do your research, so read about the course and what is expected of students. 

You may even want to comment on elements of the programme and modules that you find particularly attractive – for example, there may be opportunities for work placement, or the university has particularly good links with employers, or have a twilight seminar series that will enable you to network with other students, professors and the public. 

You may also want to comment on the opportunity to train and study under eminent professors and teaching staff – read their research papers and comment on how this aligns with your own ideas for research and career aspirations. 

3. Why now?

Tell them about your previous studies and how they provide you with a foundation to the course that you’re wishing to study with them.  Your previous studies may not be in the same subject or discipline area, but all courses result in what are referred to as “transferable skills” – these are the skills and abilities, which can be applied to a wide range of different courses, careers and industries.

In some cases you may have already completed a course at the same level, so explain why you’re taking this additional course and what you feel it will provide you that your previous course did not.

4. How prepared are you?

In addition to showing them you’ve done your research on the course and the university, say how you have prepared yourself for overseas study.  

As you will have heard from our podcasts and other articles, the method of assessment in India often requires you to memorise facts and provide short answers to questions in an examination environment, whereas in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, assessments at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels will require you to write essays, reports and other discussion papers.  You might therefore want to say a little about what you understand to be the difference in assessment processes and how you have, or will have, prepared yourself for these.

5. What will success mean do you?

When we read personal statements we really like to get an understanding of how much this course will help you achieve your goals and how it will support others around you.  Again there is a psychological reason behind this question – the answer will show that you have a vision for success and what this will look like. It also tells us what you will hope to go on to do after completing the course.

This question is therefore essentially about your motivation to begin studying, what will keep you motivated during your studies and how you will ensure you complete your studies.  If there are clear and strong drivers that motivate you to study then we know you will put all your effort into your studies and we are more likely to offer you a place as opposed to somebody else who appears less committed and motivated.

So, these are our 5 key areas that you need to include in your university application when applying to study abroad. You could use the sentences as guiding headers to help you structure your statement; remembering to remove them when you have finished writing your statement.   

Even if the university you are applying to asks for a covering letter, rather than the completion of a structured application template, you can use these headings in your letter to help you organise and structure your thoughts.

SUBSCRIBE to our podcast. It’s easy to do, just hit the ‘subscribe’ button on your podcast listening platform. 

SIGN UP for our newsletter so you can be the first to hear about new articles, podcasts and updates for Indian’s wishing to study abroad, those who are currently studying abroad or those who have completed their studies abroad.

DOWNLOAD our FREE study abroad checklist – a comprehensive guide that will help you with every step of your decision making.

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With over 40 years of combined knowledge and experience of working with students from India and other countries, we have helped hundreds of students to study abroad. We’ve worked with students both during the application and admissions process, we have taught them on their undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and supported them to find employment once they have graduated.

Our podcast – The Indian’s Guide to Studying Abroad – and the accompanying resources on our website www.TheStudyAbroadShow.com will help to guide and direct you at whatever stage in your educational journey you are at:

• the application stage,
• already studying abroad or
• if you have completed your studies and are now looking for employment.

In our shows we’ll provide you with advice, strategies and tips that will help you with each stage of your journey.

If you’re thinking of studying abroad and are wondering how to find the best course or university for you, how to apply, and what to say in your application or are interested in understanding how studying abroad differs from studying in India, and how you can secure employment once you have graduated – this podcast will be for you.

Drawing on our own experience, as well as those of our guests, we’ll provide you with all the steps you need to successfully apply and study abroad, and we’ll outline what action you’ll need to take at each stage. If you are a student already studying abroad, you’ll find our study skills of great value as they will help you manage your studies, and if you are near graduation or have graduated, you’ll enjoy our shows that focus on securing employment and building your career.

There are three things you’ll need to do to get the most out of our podcast.

1. Firstly, make sure you listen to the episodes in order as each show builds on the other, but you can jump in and out – and relisten to shows to ensure you have made the most of every tip we have to share.
2. Secondly, you should subscribe to our newsletter and download our FREE ‘study abroad checklist’ – this is our master guide that is going to walk you through every step of the process and will help you take your idea of studying abroad and make it a reality and ensure you have a successful experience when you do so. You can download the guide by entering your details in the pop-up box that appears on the website, or by registering for our newsletter.
3. Thirdly, you should subscribe to our channel on your podcast listening platform of choice, so you can hear about new episodes as soon as they are released.

The podcast is hosted by Dr Ranjit Khutan and Professor Tony Stewart; we’ll share more about us and our backgrounds during our podcasts, but for now, here’s a short introduction:

Dr Ranjit Khutan has worked in senior academic roles in higher education in the UK for over 20 years and is currently Head of Department at a leading UK university.

Professor Tony Stewart has also worked in senior academic roles in higher education in the UK for over 20 years and is currently in a senior academic role at the same leading UK university, with professorial roles at other universities.

Our earlier shows were recorded in late summer 2020 but due to Covid-19 and the many changes that took place in academia, there was a short delay in getting these out to you. However, they are now available on Apple iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, Overcast, YouTube and many other podcast platforms – check to see if we’re listed on your listening platform of choice and get in touch if we’re not.

Finally, we hope you enjoy the shows, and do get in touch with your comments and suggestions for topics you’d like us to cover in the future.

Until we meet,

Dr Ranjit Khutan & Professor Tony Stewart

SUBSCRIBE to our podcast. It’s easy to do, just hit the ‘subscribe’ button on your podcast listening platform.

SIGN UP for our newsletter so you can be the first to hear about new articles, podcasts and updates for Indian’s wishing to study abroad, those who are currently studying abroad or those who have completed their studies abroad.

DOWNLOAD our FREE study abroad checklist – a comprehensive guide that will help you with every step of your decision making.

The post The podcast for Indian’s wishing to study abroad is here! appeared first on The Study Abroad Show.

Our free ‘study abroad checklist’ is the essential guide that will walk you through every step of the process and help you make your dream of studying abroad a reality. 

Spread across areas such as costs and finances, choosing your university, and country and location, we ask you questions and set tasks that will help you ensure you make the right decision for you.

To instantly download the book, enter your details in the pop up that will appear at the bottom of your browser. If you have accidentally declined the offer, re-open the webpage in a different browser or a private or incognito mode and it should re-appear.  You will also be automatically added to our newsletter mailing list which will also include a link to the checklist.

SUBSCRIBE to our podcast. It’s easy to do, just hit the ‘subscribe’ button on your podcast listening platform. 

SIGN UP for our newsletter so you can be the first to hear about new articles, podcasts and updates for Indian’s wishing to study abroad, those who are currently studying abroad or those who have completed their studies abroad.

DOWNLOAD our FREE study abroad checklist – a comprehensive guide that will help you with every step of your decision making.

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