UK Open Day in India

Cities: Dehradun and Mussoorie

Dates: Week of 14-18 November 2022

The British Council’s School/HEI Tours are back but with a twist.

Many of you will remember our school/HEI tours and school missions, where we took UK education providers across India to top schools and HEIs to meet students to promote the UK higher education offer.

In our new strategy we want to further engage those that influencer prospective international students, and we will be expanding out work with agents and school counsellors. Therefore, we will be conducting school and HEI tours with an added focus on engaging school counsellors and international relations officers at Indian HEIs.

India’s student growth in the last few years, including the pandemic period has been unprecedented. And while, characteristic to India, the postgraduate numbers continue to dominate the growth trends, the 20% growth in undergraduate students as per recent UCAS statistics, is worth a deeper look. More Indian students are looking to kickstart their foreign education early – this could be due to aspirations in the family, a highly competitive Undergraduate college application environment in India or the growth in international schools and boards across schools, not just in tier 1 but also tier 2 and 3 cities.

Boarding schools in India have always been a key source for students choosing higher studies abroad, due to the socio-economic profiles of the students they host, their internationalised outlook and strong career counselling culture.

Equally the PG sector continues to grow with Indian students, and we want to ensure the UK is their top choice when choosing a foreign destination. We want to equip college counsellors, leaders and students with the right information, so they are confident about choosing the UK and continue to engage with us.

We are delighted to invite all eligible UK higher education providers (HEPs) to join us for the UK Open Day in Indian Schools and HEIs. UK HEPs will

• Choose to participate in one or both tours across strong student mobility belts in India
• UK HEPs will interact with school counsellors, conduct workshops with counsellors and students, meet and engage students and gain a fuller understanding of the Indian UG market over a week.
• Build networks and relationships with some of India’s top schools and their counsellors and leaders
• Will promote the UK as a whole and position the UK’s world class universities to school counsellors and students
• UK HEPs will develop and deliver workshops and sessions for counsellors and students in an effort to soft sell the UK

Format:

• Over the week the tour will visit Dehradun and Mussoorie. The tour will engage top schools where students typically choose to go abroad for higher studies and have a good career counselling culture.
• In each city we will bring multiple schools to one venue where possible, for a day of engagement with UK content, learning and experiences.
• The form of engagement will be workshops, videos, panel discussions, quizzes and group activities. There will be no hard selling of individual UK HEPs and their courses
• However participating UK HEPs will get a chance to talk about their institution and create awareness about their brand to key influencers and students during the tour
• UK HEIs can bring their alumni who are perhaps based in these cities to join the sessions and talk about their UK experiences.

Draft programme

How to participate:

• Interested UK HEIs are requested to fill in an online form with their details
• UK HEIs are expected to pay for their own international and domestic (inter-city) travels as well as accommodation. The British Council will make recommendations.
• There is no participation fee to be paid to the British Council
• British Council will organise and pay for local travel only in each city which includes car hire for hotel to schools.
• A maximum of 15 UK HEPs will be accepted on each tour.  The tours will go ahead with 8.
• The British Council will choose the list of participating institutions based on the interests we receive. We want to ensure the delegation represents the diversity in the UK education system and we have varied representation across the devolved administrations, research institutions, niche institutions amongst the main HEPs.

Interested UK HEIs are requested to fill in an online form to submit their Expression of Interest

The deadline for submitting expression of interest is Monday 10 October 2022

If you have any queries about this event, please contact Vishu.sharma@britishcouncil.org

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

The second part of the UK Open Day will be held in other regions February/ March 2023. For this version we will invite counsellors and students from across the country to meet 20 UK HEPs, for a day of masterclasses, counsellor trainings, briefing sessions, workshops and UCAS/ UKVI sessions. Each participating UK HEP will have an information desk to meet counsellors and students to share information on their courses and opportunities in the UK.

The list of 20 UK HEPs will be curated after receiving interest to represent the diversity of the UK education sector as well as the local demands. Please inform us of your interest here so we can share further details.