BENGALURU: Female science researchers from South Indian states seem to be pro-actively reaching out for scholarships in the United Kingdom, as opposed to their North Indian counterparts. The British Council which gave limited period British Council India 70th Anniversary Scholarships to Indian women to study in the UK in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) saw a great reception from South India.
For instance, in the two years of its existence, over 2018-19 and 2019-20, 162 Indian women were given these fully-funded STEM scholarships to study at 43 UK Universities. Of these, 42% of women scholars were from South India alone. Karnataka sends the maximum number of students to the UK for higher education opportunities, said. South India has the largest number of scholarship holders be it for the -- GREAT scholarships for multiple fields of study, Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarships or the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), she said.
As many as 105 institutional research partnerships have been established between higher education institutions in India and the UK. “Indian Department of Science and Technology, department of biotechnology and Indian Institute of Science Education Research (Pune), along with the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK have trained more than 320 women scientist and provided over 290 PhD placements over past four years, and trained more than 1000 stem teachers from Undergraduate colleges, she added, about the collaborative opportunities between the two countries. Karnataka government stressed the need for collaboration with varsities in the UK for two-way learning of best practices.