The British Council recently announced the launch of a raft of new scholarships being made available to Indian students, called GREAT Scholarships. At a size of 1 million pounds, which is about 100 million rupees, and heralded as the “single largest number of scholarships ever launched in India” by Richard Everitt, the Director of Education and Society at the British Council, it certainly sounds good. Maybe even great. After all, the scholarships are offered by 36 institutions from across the UK. These include some renowned universities such as University College London (UCL), University of Edinburgh, University of Liverpool, University of Sheffield, University of Strathclyde, and Durham University. Ostensibly the aim is to make it possible for deserving students from India to study at the best institutions in the UK, and the theory behind scholarships is indeed to ensure that the most deserving candidates avail of the best opportunities, regardless of their economic standing. A somewhat closer look however reveals that the GREAT education scholarships may not be quite as generous as they seem.

On the face of it, the 9000 pound scholarship provided by London Business School appears to be the most generous scholarship of the lot as it is the largest. And at just 750 pounds, the scholarships offered by the University of Bedfordshire for a range of different courses certainly appear to be the most parsimonious. But the 9000 pound scholarship is for a Masters in Management degree which costs a total of 26,600 pounds. While still a decent sized scholarship, this still leaves a sizable chunk of the fees to be paid by the student, and when you consider living costs would be additional, the whole proposition begins to look quite expensive, even with the scholarship. At least the fee for this course is non-discriminating, it is the same for UK students, EU students, and international students so Indians would be paying the same fees as citizens of the UK. Going through the rest of the scholarship offers, it starts to become clear that they are all partial scholarships, and for courses in which international students are required to pay a substantially higher fee than locals, which is the vast majority of courses, that means that the scholarship can provide only a dent in what is still a large expense.

What this means is that while the introduction of the GREAT education scholarships is encouraging, it still only makes education in the UK possible for a select few students. It may be just what’s required for those who were on the tip of being able to afford an education there before, and now will be able to foot the slightly reduced bill. If that’s you, then work hard and try to win one of these scholarships. Although it’s certainly a positive step taken by the British Council, Indian students will be hoping to see an even wider range of scholarships made available to them, both in size and quantity, if they are to be able to afford an education in the UK in greater numbers.

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