London: The UK is set to announce 396 new scholarships in a bid to attract Indian students to British universities after the strict visa norms made it difficult for them to stay and work after completing their degrees. Vince Cable, the secretary of state for business, innovation and skills, will announce 396 new scholarships as part of a 1.5-million pounds UK-government funded programme during a week-long visit to India. He will also be focussing on advanced manufacturing and trade and investment flows sectors. The scholarships would apply across 57 British universities in 2015. He will also launch the new Education UK Alumni Awards to invite Indian students who completed their undergraduate degrees in the UK to return to their alma mater on an expense-paid visit.

"I will be making the case for encouraging Indian students in the UK and to cement it we've got a big new scholarship programme and a programme aimed at around quarter of a million Indian graduates who did their undergraduation in the UK so they can come back here for return visits and re-acquaint themselves with their old universities," Cable said. The senior Liberal Democrat MP is the one of the most outspoken critic of the UK government's immigration policies that have proved off-putting to overseas students, resulting in a sharp drop of students from India.

"I want to send a very strong message that we really value Indian students in the UK. There's been quite a big drop off for a mixture of reasons but probably because of a false perception in India that they are not welcome," Cable said just before leaving for India yesterday. He admitted issues around the post-study work visa which made it difficult for students to stay on and work after completing their degrees. He added: "The visa regime has been tightened. There was genuine abuse and as a result a lot of perfectly good students get caught up in the immigration controls and I would like to see some of that relaxed."