Indian initiatives grow

By focusing so strongly on student recruitment and revenue generation for UK universities, you overlooked the partnership element and the large investment in research co-operation by UK universities in India ("Trading partners", 13 March). Some 77 research co-operation projects are supported through the UK-India Research Education and Initiative and a significant proportion of funding for this comes from the 70 UK institutions involved. Some 450 applications were received for the projects and a further projects will be supported in the next round later this year. My recent analysis suggests that about 40 per cent of Indian research students in the UK receive their main funding from their UK university.

A recent call for proposals under the Prime Minister's Initiative to encourage study in India has resulted in 11 projects from UK universities, which will result in more than 200 UK students going to India this year.

Neil Kemp, Professional adviser UK-India Research Education and Initiative.