Information on 70-odd universities and colleges in the US and UK, a chance to interact with their representatives and a glimpse of the campus life in the two countries were in store for students in Calcutta over the past week.

The Study America Fest, organised by the American Centre from Monday to Wednesday, and the UK Education Fair, held on Tuesday and Wednesday, saw a huge turnout of students.

“I came to the US fest to find out about the MBA courses on offer. For the same reason I’ll visit the UK education fair too,” said Kaushik Paul, a third-year B.Com honours student at Goenka College of Commerce, who was attending the Know America Quiz at the American Center.

Some of the colleges that had set up stalls at the American fest were Chatham University, Berkley College, George Washington University and Rochester Institute of Technology.

While students made a beeline for the American Center for an overview of the education scene in that country, the visitors to the UK fair came with a definite agenda.

“The difference this time is that most students who came here knew exactly what they wanted, be it scholarship information or details of the modules on offer,” said Marina Gandhi, head (education), British Council Eastern India.

Participants at the UK fair included the University of the Arts London, University of Brighton, Cardiff University, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Glasgow, University of Liverpool and the University of London.

“I have already applied to the University of Sussex but I wanted to meet the representatives in person and check out whether any scholarships are available other than what the department concerned told me,” said Madhabi Sarkar, who is doing her masters in sociology from Jadavpur University.

Students at both fairs were mostly interested in masters and research programmes. “Most were interested in graduate studies but there has been an increase in interest in undergraduate studies as well,” said Moulik Berkhana, deputy director, American Center.