In October 2025, 125 of the UK’s most prominent CEOs, leading business owners and university vice-chancellors joined UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on a trade objective to India.
At The PIE Live Europe 2026, some of those visitors raised the curtain on the trip: who sat next who on the aircraft, selfies with the PM, the security checks and beyond the anecdotes, how this moment is reshaping the landscape for UK-India college.
“When your PA comes and informs 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. 9 of them have a school currently concurred with, or have the UGC authorization to continue … Leicester is not one of those. So I was rather captivated as to why Leicester was welcomed,” he explained.
Leicester, like the other universities on the journey without UGC‑approved school strategies, remains deeply engaged with India through collaborations, recruitment and research study links instead of a physical campus.
On The Other Hand, Simon Guy, pro-vice chancellor worldwide, Lancaster University, was already deep in the UGC procedure to establish its Bengaluru campus. Lancaster had actually currently completed the “large type” needed for a letter of intent and flown to Delhi for interview.
By the time Lancaster was invited onto the Prime Minister’s airplane, the university presumed excellent news was close, but still didn’t know when, where or how the definitive letter would really be turned over.
For Evelyn Welch, vice-chancellor and president, University of Bristol– which just recently announced its Mumbai campus– the last-minute welcome meant a shuffling of calendars: “It was a really fascinating balance about the requirement for a senior leader to be in two locations simultaneously, which never ever 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 blended through immigration and out into Mumbai’s traffic under escort– and directly into a visual reminder of what this trip represented.
“We had the traffic of Mumbai, however also we got this incredible view of poster after poster after poster of Starmer and Modi.”
Canagarajah boarded at Heathrow to discover he was seated next to the CEO of British Airways. Behind him sat the president of Virgin Atlantic. Neighboring were fellow vice-chancellors from Birmingham and Liverpool. Around them, a few of the 125 CEOs, business owners, university leaders and cultural figures who had been swept into this high-stakes display of UK-India cooperation.
Starmer’s existence was thoroughly choreographed, even in the air. On the outgoing flight, Starmer walked down one side of the aisle, stopping briefly to speak to those in his path. On the return flight, travelers 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 house in Mumbai, it was exposed that just 9 vice-chancellors would be allowed into the room for the official picture with Modi and Starmer.
Nine UK vice-chancellors line up for an image with
Starmer and Modi. Image by Simon Dawson/ No 10 Downing Street
“Try to envision now 9 senior members of universities will have the opportunity to have actually an image taken with 2 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 appeared in the task of bringing UK universities into India.
“This was clearly an individual task … Modi was asking each of us, ‘Where are you establishing your campus?'” said Welch.
Before a joint interview, the Indian government played a two-and-a-half-minute video celebrating the nine UK universities approved to open or run schools in India as each organization had supplied its own short marketing film.
For Alison Barrett, country director for India at the British Council, that minute sits within a wider, already‑established policy shift on both sides. She points first to India’s National Education Policy 2020, which “has actually assisted allow higher focus of multinational education in all forms” and then to the UK’s own International Education Method, in which India is mentioned “no less than 20 times”.
Barrett likewise highlighted the India-UK Vision 2035, “in which education, for the extremely very first time, has been identified and taken out as one of the priority flagship sectors for cooperation in between the two nations”.
“This is India truly driving forward an innovative brand-new technique to global education, a new technique to worldwide education and engagement,” said Barrett.
As India’s need for college continues, requiring countless new university locations by 2035, there are substantial development opportunities for UK universities. Participants in the delegation kept in mind a collaborative spirit among UK universities, focusing on shared benefit instead of competition.
“We all stated that we really need to collaborate around this opportunity. Our competitors here is not each other … Everyone is attempting to enter into India, so we all type of rise together and if any of us battle, actually, it will rebound on everybody,” stated Guy.
“The heat 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 trainees here in the UK or Indian trainees studying in‑country, employability is going to lie at the heart of their success, which suggests it lies at the heart of our success
Evelyn Welch, University of Bristol
Industry links, employability and follow‑up are already forming what takes place next. Welch noted that market partnerships “were absolutely created” throughout 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 trainees here in the UK or Indian students studying in‑country, employability is going to lie at the heart of their success, which implies it lies at the heart of our success,” she said.