In October 2025, 125 of the UK’s most popular 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 travellers raised the curtain on the trip: who sat next who on the airplane, selfies with the PM, the security checks and beyond the anecdotes, how this moment is improving the landscape for UK-India higher education.
“When your PA comes and tells 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 already concurred with, or have the UGC permission to continue … Leicester is not one of those. So I was rather intrigued as to why Leicester was welcomed,” he discussed.
Leicester, like the other universities on the journey without UGC‑approved campus plans, stays deeply engaged with India through collaborations, recruitment and research study links instead of a physical campus.
Meanwhile, Simon Guy, pro-vice chancellor international, Lancaster University, was already deep in the UGC process to establish its Bengaluru school. Lancaster had currently finished the “huge type” required 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 believed great news was close, but still didn’t know when, where or how the definitive letter would actually be handed over.
For Evelyn Welch, vice-chancellor and president, University of Bristol– which recently announced its Mumbai school– the last-minute invite suggested a shuffling of calendars: “It was an actually interesting balance about the requirement for a senior leader to be in two locations simultaneously, which never generally occurs at rather this level of intensity.”
Welch, taking a different path, landed while the main delegation from London was still in the air. She was blended through migration and out into Mumbai’s traffic under escort– and directly into a visual suggestion of what this journey represented.
“We had the traffic of Mumbai, however likewise we got this fantastic view of poster after poster after poster of Starmer and Modi.”
Canagarajah boarded at Heathrow to find he was seated beside the CEO of British Airways. Behind him sat the president of Virgin Atlantic. Nearby were fellow vice-chancellors from Birmingham and Liverpool. Around them, some of the 125 CEOs, business owners, university leaders and cultural figures who had been swept into this high-stakes display of UK-India partnership.
Starmer’s existence was thoroughly choreographed, even in the air. On the outbound flight, Starmer walked down one side of the aisle, pausing to speak with those in his path. On the return flight, guests 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 guv’s residence in Mumbai, it was revealed that just nine vice-chancellors would be allowed into the space for the official picture with Modi and Starmer.
9 UK vice-chancellors line up for an image with
Starmer and Modi. Photo by Simon Dawson/ No 10 Downing Street
“Attempt to envision now 9 senior members of universities are about to have the opportunity to have an image taken with 2 prime ministers. What do you think is going through their mind? Where should I stand?” remembered Guy.
What struck the vice-chancellors most was how personally invested India’s prime minister appeared in the job of bringing UK universities into India.
“This was clearly an individual project … Modi was asking each people, ‘Where are you establishing your campus?'” stated Welch.
Before a joint interview, the Indian federal government played a two-and-a-half-minute video commemorating the nine UK universities approved to open or run schools in India as each organization had provided its own brief marketing movie.
For Alison Barrett, nation director for India at the British Council, that moment sits within a larger, already‑established policy shift on both sides. She points initially to India’s National Education Policy 2020, which “has actually helped enable higher focus of global education in all kinds” and after that to the UK’s own International Education Technique, in which India is mentioned “no less than 20 times”.
Barrett also highlighted the India-UK Vision 2035, “in which education, for the really very first time, has been determined and taken out as one of the top priority flagship sectors for collaboration between the 2 countries”.
“This is India actually driving forward an ingenious brand-new technique to multinational education, a new approach to global education and engagement,” said Barrett.
As India’s need for college continues, requiring countless new university places by 2035, there are substantial development opportunities for UK universities. Individuals in the delegation noted a collective spirit amongst UK universities, concentrating on mutual benefit instead of competitors.
“All of us stated that we truly need to collaborate around this chance. Our competition here is not each other … Everyone is trying to enter India, so all of us type of increase together and if any of us struggle, in fact, it will rebound on everybody,” stated Guy.
“The heat of the welcome, the scale of opportunity, the rate that we will need to move at to be effective over a long period– [it’s] very much a marathon, not a sprint,” he added.
For all of our graduates, whether they are Indian students here in the UK or Indian students 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 industry collaborations “were definitely created” during the delegation, causing a follow‑up reception at Lancaster House in London to reconnect the delegation with UK‑based personnel from Indian companies.
“For all of our graduates, whether they are Indian students here in the UK or Indian trainees studying in‑country, employability is going to lie at the heart of their success, which means it lies at the heart of our success,” she said.