London is best home for Indian students: Lord Paul

July 9: Leading NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul has endorsed London as one of the best cities for Indian students to come and study, saying there is no place in the world other than the British capital where an Indian can feel more at home.

The Chancellor of one of the city's leading educational institutions, Westminster University, was responding to a survey that London's universities offer millions of pounds worth of scholarships every year to students from India to come and study at some of the world's best higher education institutions.

The survey, carried out by the London University International Partnership (LUIP), found that a vast majority of Indian students (85 per cent) currently studying here thought that a London education widened horizons and gave the opportunity to explore a greater choice of careers.

"London has very good universities. Every parent when looking at sending their child to study abroad would prefer sending them to Britain and from an Indian point of view, Britain is London. They have relatives here and they know if their children have any issues, they can turn to somebody," said Paul, who is the founder Chairman of the Caparo Group.

"That is a great attraction to any Indian family, and children also want to come here as they feel at home. There is no place in the world where an Indian once out of India can feel more at home than in London," he said.

"London is the most international city in the world and Indians are extremely welcome. Do not judge it by the visa rules. London is more than visas. And, you get better Indian food here than in India," Paul said in a lighter vein as part of his appeal to Indian students looking at studying abroad.

Paul is also the Chancellor of Wolverhampton University. The survey, released here today, covers a third of the city's universities and found that in total an average of 2.5 million pounds has been awarded to students each year from India and over 7 million pounds over the last three years.

The figure could be three times higher (over 7 million pounds per year) as just the 17 universities in the LUIP took part in the study.

PTI