In October 2025, 125 of the UK’s most prominent CEOs, leading entrepreneurs and university vice-chancellors joined UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on a trade mission to India.
At The PIE Live Europe 2026, some of those travellers lifted the curtain on the trip: who sat next who on the plane, selfies with the PM, the security checks and beyond the anecdotes, how this moment is reshaping the landscape for UK-India higher education.
“When your PA comes and tells you, ‘I had a call from Number 10,’ you’re panicking,” said Nishan Canagarajah, president and vice-chancellor, University of Leicester, who got the call with 10 days’ notice.
“There were 13 vice-chancellors. Nine of them have a campus already agreed with, or have the UGC permission to proceed… Leicester is not one of those. So I was quite intrigued as to why Leicester was invited,” he explained.
Leicester, like the other universities on the trip without UGC‑approved campus plans, remains deeply engaged with India through partnerships, recruitment and research links rather than a physical campus.
Meanwhile, Simon Guy, pro-vice chancellor global, Lancaster University, was already deep in the UGC process to set up its Bengaluru campus. Lancaster had already completed the “great big form” required for a letter of intent and flown to Delhi for interview.
By the time Lancaster was invited onto the Prime Minister’s plane, the university suspected good news was close, but still didn’t know when, where or how the decisive letter would actually be handed over.
For Evelyn Welch, vice-chancellor and president, University of Bristol – which recently announced its Mumbai campus – the last-minute invite meant a shuffling of calendars: “It was a really interesting balance about the need for a senior leader to be in two places simultaneously, which never usually happens at quite this level of intensity.”
Welch, taking a different route, landed while the main delegation from London was still in the air. She was whisked through immigration and out into Mumbai’s traffic under escort – and straight into a visual reminder of what this trip represented.
“We had the traffic of Mumbai, but also we got this amazing view of poster after poster after poster of Starmer and Modi.”
Canagarajah boarded at Heathrow to find he was seated next to the CEO of British Airways. Behind him sat the chief executive of Virgin Atlantic. Nearby were fellow vice-chancellors from Birmingham and Liverpool. Around them, some of the 125 CEOs, entrepreneurs, university leaders and cultural figures who had been swept into this high-stakes showcase of UK-India collaboration.
Starmer’s presence was carefully choreographed, even in the air. On the outbound flight, Starmer walked down one side of the aisle, stopping briefly to speak to those in his path. On the return flight, passengers on the other side of the aisle had their opportunity to chat and takes selfies with the Prime Minister.
By the time the delegation reached Raj Bhavan, the governor’s residence in Mumbai, it was revealed that only nine vice-chancellors would be allowed into the room for the official photograph with Modi and Starmer.
Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street
“Try to imagine now nine senior members of universities are about to have the opportunity to have a picture taken with two prime ministers. What do you think is going through their mind? Where should I stand?” recalled Guy.
What struck the vice-chancellors most was how personally invested India’s prime minister seemed in the project of bringing UK universities into India.
“This was clearly a personal project… Modi was asking each of us, ‘Where are you setting up your campus?'” said Welch.
Before a joint press conference, the Indian government played a two-and-a-half-minute video celebrating the nine UK universities approved to open or operate campuses in India as each institution had supplied its own short promotional film.
For Alison Barrett, country director for India at the British Council, that moment sits within a wider, already‑established policy shift on both sides. She points first to India’s National Education Policy 2020, which “has really helped enable greater focus of transnational education in all forms” and then to the UK’s own International Education Strategy, in which India is mentioned “no less than 20 times”.
Barrett also highlighted the India-UK Vision 2035, “in which education, for the very first time, has been identified and pulled out as one of the priority flagship sectors for collaboration between the two countries”.
“This is India really driving forward an innovative new approach to transnational education, a new approach to international education and engagement,” said Barrett.
As India’s demand for higher education continues, requiring millions of new university places by 2035, there are significant growth opportunities for UK universities. Participants in the delegation noted a collaborative spirit among UK universities, focusing on mutual benefit rather than competition.
“We all said that we really have to collaborate around this opportunity. Our competition here is not each other… Everyone is trying to get into India, so we all kind of rise together and if any of us struggle, actually, it will rebound on all of us,” said Guy.
“The warmth of the welcome, the scale of opportunity, the pace that we will need to move at to be successful over a long period – [it’s] very much a marathon, not a sprint,” he added.
For all of our graduates, whether they are Indian students here in the UK or Indian students studying in‑country, employability is going to lie at the heart of their success, which means it lies at the heart of our success
Evelyn Welch, University of Bristol
Industry links, employability and follow‑up are already shaping what happens next. Welch noted that industry partnerships “were absolutely forged” during the delegation, leading to a follow‑up reception at Lancaster House in London to reconnect the delegation with UK‑based staff from Indian firms.
“For all of our graduates, whether they are Indian students here in the UK or Indian students studying in‑country, employability is going to lie at the heart of their success, which means it lies at the heart of our success,” she said.
