Professor Rachel Sandison is Scotland’s new international trade and investment envoy responsible for promoting the country’s academic institutions. Sandison is Deputy Vice Chancellor for External Engagement and Vice-Principal for External Relations at the University of Glasgow. educationspeak caught up with Professor Sandison recently to find out more about her plans for India and the launch of the Scotland’s new Migration Service.

educationspeak: Can you tell us about your plans for India? Any upcoming visits that you have on your schedule?

Professor Sandison: I’m very much hoping to travel to India again before the end of the year, following on from the very successful University of Glasgow delegation visit in February that I led. Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of engaging with offer holders, agents, and higher education and industry partners, including Biocon, and I would hope that future visits will also provide the opportunity to connect with our vibrant and growing alumni community who have enjoyed studying at a Scottish institution. 

educationspeak: India is on the cusp of a new era with the higher education blueprint created by the National Education Policy 2020. With Scotland’s International Education Strategy, how do you see the two countries working together to complement each other in the international education space and create a thriving ecosystem for students, academics and researchers?

Professor Sandison: I believe that there are significant opportunities for Scotland and India to both broaden and deepen relationships across the education sector, with clear synergies between the National Education Policy 2020 and Scotland’s International Education Strategy. 

I know there is real appetite to develop partnerships with peers across the Indian HE sector, and the mutual recognition of qualifications has been hugely valuable in supporting the portability of UK degrees. We already have many great examples of joint programme delivery, articulation pathways, summer schools and more, and the policy allowing foreign universities to establish branch campuses in India is incredibly exciting and will undoubtedly open up a wide range of new opportunities.  

We want to ensure that students, researchers, academics and professional services staff have the opportunity to gain global competencies, insights and experiences, and physical and virtual mobility will remain key to this. World-class research is global research and is already being produced by academics across a range of discipline areas. We want to ensure that an enabling ecosystem exists to encourage even greater collaboration in the future. 

educationspeak:  Any other education initiatives you would like to tell our readers about?

Professor Sandison: There are many exciting initiatives to share, but one that I will specifically highlight is the launch of Scotland’s Migration Service: https://www.scotland.org/move-to-scotland/migration-service

This is a new service that is dedicated to providing invaluable advice and guidance to international students who wish to remain and work in Scotland post-graduation, and also to employers who wish to employ international talent.

Scotland recognises the immense contribution that international students make to our campuses and communities as well as the importance of global connectivity and collaboration to respond to the grand challenges of our time. I look forward to helping to foster both new and extant partnerships between Scottish and Indian institutions now and in the future. 

educationspeak: Thank you, Professor Sandison, for speaking with us and congratulations on your new role!