Building on the rising interest from UK students to study in India, the ‘Great Place to Study – India Edition’, launched  in London this month.

“India has great potential to become a global hub for people from different destinations around the world”

According to SkillTree, private Indian higher education universities are growing at around 40% per annum and are worth about US$6.5 billion USD.

The Great Place to Study initiative is the international academic auditing, research and consultation branch of the consortium and aims to highlight institutions offering “excellent world class education,” SkillTree founder, Shekhar Bhattacharjee, said.

The programme will showcase and promote 20 institutions a year. At the event in London, the selected 20 institutions were awarded certificates including Ansal University, Shoolini University and the FORE School of Management.

“We have a thorough scrutinising process of rigorous research and auditing, and a dedicated jury that goes about its task scrupulously,” Bhattacharjee said of the selection process. “To ensure that the credibility of the process is not compromised, there are also in place high-end transparent benchmarks for the selection of institutions.”

Private institutions have played an “instrumental role” in the growth of Indian higher education over the last two decades, making up 64% of the higher education sector and helping to make it the world’s third largest HE system, Arvina Purkayastha, COO & Editor, SkillTree Knowledge Consortium and Editor of the Great Place To Study initiative, said.

“India has great potential to become a global hub for people from different destinations around the world,” Purkayastha commented. “Already, India is the emerging destination for international students.”

Key figures that have been integral to relations between the UK and India were also honoured at the event including, Lord Navnit Dholakia OBE, Keith Vaz, from the Home Affairs Select Committee and Richie Nanda, Executive Chairman of TOPSGRUP and The Shield Group