Unlike the Erasmus+ Scheme (which was mainly EU focused), The Turing Scheme is a truly global programme with every country in the world eligible to partner with the UK’s education settings. This year, over 150 countries are involved. As of July 2022, the UK government are partners with India having signed an agreement to recognise each other’s higher education qualifications in a move welcomed by British universities.
The Memorandum of Understanding is part of the UK-India Enhanced Trade Partnership (ETP) and was agreed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year. It means that A-levels and their equivalents, undergraduate and postgraduate degrees will now be recognised in India. It will also allow Indian students who graduate from British universities to apply for postgraduate qualifications, or embark on government careers that require university qualifications, when they return home.
The UK and India are already important destinations for each other’s students - in 2020/2021 the UK welcomed 84,555 Indian students to the UK. India is a popular destination for UK students to study abroad too as part of The Turing Scheme international education programme.
This new agreement will make UK universities even more appealing to Indian applicants and is likely to provide an economic boost, as the benefit to the UK of welcoming non-EU students is estimated by industry to be worth around £109,000 per person.
It will also increase the potential for UK nationals to travel to India to study, allowing them more choice and broadening their academic and educational horizons, as well as opening the door for institutions to create courses that can be delivered in both countries.
The deal is one of three signed recently, implementing the ETP, which sets out a series of commitments to unlock new opportunities for British businesses exporting to India and vice versa. Trade between the UK and India is already worth over £24bn, and this investment relationship supports over half a million jobs. Since 2017 the UK Government has secured new access to India’s market, which businesses estimate will unlock approximately £92m of additional UK exports every year in spirits, oats, pork products, and more. India is projected to become the world’s third largest economy by 2050.
The two sides also signed MoUs implementing ETP commitments to create a taskforce to provide opportunities for Indian nurses and nursing associates seeking to train and work in the NHS, and to renew a commitment for mutual recognition of the Seafarers’ Certificate of Competency.