When Lancaster University was first established in 1964, being ‘international’ was seen as part of the mission of the institution. At that time, ‘international’ really referred to the composition of the student body. Lancaster has been very successful in this regard. In recent years, one in 5 of our students is now from a country outside the UK and we have approximately 100 nationalities resident on campus.

However, that was a very 20th century interpretation of the meaning of ‘international’ in a higher education context. Nowadays, Lancaster measures its internationalism in a number of additional ways. We are proud, for example, of the fact that almost 30% of our full time research and teaching staff are non-British and that we recruit our staff from over 60 countries, including India. We are proud also that these staff have contributed to the recognition in the 2008 UK Government’s Assessment of Research  that over 90% of the research at Lancaster is world leading or internationally significant and that some key areas of research are ranked top in the UK.

Not only is so much of the research of the highest academic standard, increasingly the research is of international importance. It is making a difference to the lives of people all over the world. No doubt this is one of the reasons why Lancaster has been ranked in the top 200 universities in the world every year so far by the Times/QS Global league table and in the top 200-300 in the global rankings produced by Shanghai Jiaotong University.

These are significant achievements but, in our view, in the 21st century they are still not sufficient. We are convinced that into the future, universities will in addition be judged by the quality of their international partnerships. Lancaster University has been actively pursuing the setting up of a network of collaborative teaching and research partnerships in key countries around the world.

India has been very high on our priority list. We are delighted therefore with the opportunity provided to us by the GD Goenka Group to establish a partnership for the delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in the capital of India. We believe that the combination of Lancaster University’s academic expertise and the GD Goenka Group’s knowledge of India will provide people in India with a major new type of higher education opportunity. Equally important, it will provide staff from Lancaster University with opportunities to get to know and to work with Indian colleagues and students in country and, by so doing, to learn more about the culture and education system of the magnificent country that is India.
Long may our partnership prosper!

Professor Paul Wellings
Vice Chancellor
Lancaster University