Christ Church College. Telegraph file picture

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 25: The percentage of students opting for higher education in the United Kingdom from eastern India has overtaken the national average of 10 per cent.

The British Council, which at present is organising a series of campaigns in the city to attract students from the east to various UK universities, is surprised at the burgeoning interest.

“We have seen a 20 per cent rise in the number of applicants from last year, while the national rise was 10 per cent,” said Marina Gandhi, head of British Council’s Education UK.

Numbers from Orissa are also on a rise, as was indicated after interviewing a number of students. The eastern region covers Orissa, Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and the Northeast.

For the record, 21,157 Indians currently study in the UK. The students pay anything between 9,000 12,000 pound sterling per year as tuition fee.

Most students go to universities in Middlesex, Cardiff, Northumbria and Edinburgh. For the past three years, the universities in Scotland have been the top choices as they allow postgraduate overseas students to work for two years after course completion under the fresh talent initiative programme.

However, this year, England, Wales and Northern Ireland would allow the students the same facility. “This is important as students can pay off their loans taken from Indian banks by working for two years,” said Gandhi.

Like in other regions, in east too, business management studies remains the biggest draw followed by science, information technology and computers.

“Of course there has been fresh interest in media and communication studies,” she said. The east also scores higher over other regions in terms of lesser rejection in student visa applications.