UK wants to "push forward" its relationship with India in the education sector and British universities are increasingly interested in coming to the country to collaborate like "never before", Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal has said.

After an extensive visit to the University of Surrey and the Imperial College of London, Sibal, on a visit here, told newsmen: "in both institutions we felt these institutions are ready to collaborate with us".

"They (the institutions) are exceptionally serious about coming to India in a very substantive way," he told newsmen.

He said the Imperial College had some substantial projects to offer and "they did tell me in confidence about these projects".

"The feeling I got was that UK wants to push forward this relationship with India in the education sector and UK universities are ready to come to India, perhaps incrementally," he said, describing his discussions with Lord Peter Mandelson, Britain's Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, as "very very fruitful".

Related Articles:

• India to take up with UK refund of students' fees
• Visa restrictions will cost UK colleges billion
• UK warned on new English rules for Indian students
• Reading's dilemma: 150 languages spoken in schools
• Sikh judge slams banning of Kirpan
• Crackdown on student visas
• Manchester lecturer honoured for academic and media work
• UK's elite universities taking in fewer ethnic students
• Britain suspends 60 education providers
• Two Indian students jailed for car scam
• UK suspends student visa applications from north India
• North London Hindu school will be 'the first of many'
• UK Border staff can now deny student visa entry
• Jobless Indians facing financial ruin in UK
• Asian pupils outnumber white children in Birmingham primary schools