"We are keen to increase the number of students from India," Chancellor of the University of Oxford Chris Patten said while hosting Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath at a conference on globalisation jointly organised by FICCI and the world renowned Said Business School.
"Oxford never understates it welcome," Patten said amid drum beats of Punjabi Bhangra which ushered Nath and other Indian delegates to the Nelson Mandela Lecture Hall.
As the world's sixth largest source of students at the university, India enrolled 257 students at Oxford. Top areas studied by Indians include business administration, civil law, development studies, financial economics, bio- chemistry and engineering science.
Fifty-four of these students have won different scholarships including the Clarendon Fund and Rhodes Scholarships.
Patten said the university has recently added a new Master's programme and a business centre within the Said School with a Professorial Chair.
The university is conferring an honorary doctorate on Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
