UK wants to push ahead ties with India in education: Kapil Sibal

UK wants to "push forward" its relationship with India in the education sector, and British universities are increasingly interested in coming to the country to collaborate like "never before", minister for human resource development Kapil Sibal has said.

After an extensive visit to the University of Surrey and the Imperial College of London, Sibal, on a visit here, told newsmen, "In both institutions, we felt these institutions are ready to collaborate with us."

"They (the institutions) are exceptionally serious about coming to India in a very substantive way," he told newsmen.

He said Imperial College had some substantial projects to offer and "they did tell me in confidence about these projects".

"The feeling I got was that UK wants to push forward this relationship with India in the education sector and UK universities are ready to come to India, perhaps incrementally," he said, describing his discussions with Lord Peter Mandelson, Britain's secretary of state for business, innovation and skills, as "very, very fruitful".

"Certainly, they want to collaborate with us like never before," Sibal said.

Sibal said the MoUs signed between British Universities and IIT Ropar and the Institute of Socio Economic Research, spells out a way for collaboration.

"It may be twinning arrangement, joint degree and down the road, have campuses. I myself told them it is better to have Joint Ventures," he said.