India and the UK on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) officially recognising each other’s school and college degrees which make it easier for Indian students to pursue higher studies in Britain. 

Indian senior secondary school or pre-university certificates will be accepted for entry to colleges in the UK.

The MoU, part of the India-UK enhanced trade partnership agreed on by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Boris Johnson last year, means A-levels and their equivalents and undergraduate and postgraduate degrees will be recognised in India.

The MoU on recognising educational qualifications will allow Indian students who graduate from British universities to apply for postgraduate courses or to embark on government careers requiring university qualifications on returning home.

Commerce secretary BVR Subrahmanyam told reporters that British degrees will be recognised as equivalent to Indian degrees, though degrees in professional fields such as medicine, pharmacy, engineering and architecture will not be covered under the MoU.

The MoU will increase the potential for British nationals to study in India and open the door for institutions to create courses that can be taught in both countries. The UK received 84,555 Indian students in 2020-21.

Britain’s international trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said, “Now, we are delighted to deliver on our promise to unblock barriers to trade between our two nations and make UK higher education even easier to access and more appealing to Indian students.”

The two sides also signed a framework agreement on negotiating a system of mutual arrangements for recognising the qualifications and licences of different categories of nursing professionals, and an MoU for recognising the certification of Indian sailors for service on UK-flagged vessels