UK-based Imperial College is looking at India, Singapore, China and UAE to expand its footprint and attract more students for international education.
“These plans could materialise in the next two years as the demand for higher education is growing and almost 45 per cent of the student population is from overseas. But our criterion for selecting the staff and students is excellence,” said Roy Anderson, Vice-Chancellor, Imperial College London, who was recently in India to explore tie ups with varsities here.
Currently, the college has 250 Indian students in various disciplines such as engineering, medicine and business studies. Moreover, it has also signed an agreement with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) for joint collaborative research in the field of civil nuclear energy and power.
“We are very interested in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and some others for tie-ups and alliances as students are very demanding and want access to high quality education in good institutions and international culture,” added Anderson.
However, he says that at the moment it is not possible for the college to establish joint degree programmes with Indian universities because they lack a research environment.
Imperial College does plan to add new courses this year in engineering, science and technology, new devices and biomedicine, among others as global health is an important topic globally on the policy level. “Post the slowdown, the higher education market has become very competitive and therefore, programmes offering solutions to climate change and environment have become relevant,” he noted.
