Catch’em young: Premier UK schools eye Indian students

MUMBAI: After western universities, it is the turn of premier British schools to scout for younger Indian students.

Armed with scholarships and admission guarantees to top universities, Britain’s leading boarding schools are coming to India to enrol Indian high school students. Twelve boarding schools from the UK recently formed a federation to register 11 to 16- year- old Indian students. St Bees and St Christopher’s are members of the federation.

While the federation website and school names will be unveiled only by Novemberend, the institutes are expected to conduct tests for students in February 2014. The exams — testing an applicant’s proficiency in English, maths and general knowledge -- will be conducted in 15 cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kochi and Visakhapatnam.

Currently, only around 100 students from India are enrolled in British residential schools. “We want more Indian students as they are bright, hard-working and have a strong moral and social perspective,” says David Boddy, principal of the Anglo Schools International Services (ASIS) that is managing the federation. Boddy was the former headmaster of St James Senior Boys School, London, which, according to sources, is also one of the schools in the federation.

To attract students from India, the f ederation has announced scholarships worth Rs2 crore. Some schools are offering full scholarships (over 100,000 pounds) or covering the boarding fee, while others are giving a fee discount. While fee details are not available yet, sources said it will be 10% to 15 % higher than in top international schools in India.

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