The UKIERI-BP partnership is associated with two school clusters, the Delhi-Leicester cluster and the Bangalore-Surrey cluster. The first cluster includes Amity International, Sanskriti, Springdales Pusa Road, Modern Barakhamba, Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and D.P.S R.K Puram School in New Delhi and Ash field, Linden Primary, Judge Meadow Community College and King Edward VII School in Leicester. The newly formed Bangalore-Surrey cluster consists of schools from the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Bangalore and Sunbury Manor School, Hinchley Wood School, Healthside School and Kingston Grammar School in Surrey.

In April 2008, a roundtable discussion and dinner was held at the British Council premises in New Delhi to facilitate a unique model of engagement. Six senior managers from BP have been deemed as Link officers and will be the single point of interface for a particular school, but will tap into the larger BP resource pool. These are:

Anshul Mathur, Director, Communications and External Affairs, BP India says, “While I think the BP team could bring value to the students in the areas around energy and environment, I do think there are other areas we could support – be it around leadership and business skills, technology, safety, etc. I am sure this close interaction with the Delhi cluster will take our association to the next level. I am extremely excited about this engagement and look forward to supporting this relationship going forward”

MINISTER MEETS
CORPORATE CHAMPIONS
NEW DELHI, MAY 2008

Corporate Champions confer – Dr Ashok Jhawar with Usha Soni at Bill Rammell's lunch

Bill Rammell, MP, Minister of State (Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education) visited India in May 2008 to follow up on the Indo-UK Prime Ministers' joint declaration on education made in Delhi in January 2008. His other key objective was to discuss the progress of UKIERI, identify areas for further collaboration and to explore opportunities for collaboration on skills and vocational education.

Bill Rammell accompanied by a senior delegation, met a wide range of ministers (Higher Education, Labour, Youth Affairs and Planning Commission), civil servants, regulators and senior educationalists. He also hosted a lunch for the UKIERI Corporate Champions, which was attended by senior representatives from BP, Shell and BAE Systems, besides senior members of his delegation and senior representatives from MHRD, NEUPA, FICCI and CII.

He said, “UKIERI has provided an important plank in the growing wider dialogue between the UK and India and was acknowledged as such by our respective Prime Ministers at their summit meeting last January. We have created many more links than otherwise would have happened. The UKIERI brand has become well-established and is recognised for its transparency and academic excellence. It has provided opportunities to participate not only for our universities but for our schools and vocational colleges”  

I think the UKIERI initiative is great in bringing together schools across the two nations to help them exchange the ethos of UK and India related through (over the last 300 years), cultures and the educational systems and tools for mutual enrichment. The spirit of UKIERI is worthy of praise

We also take this opportunity to convey our deepest appreciation to Pia MacRae, former Director, Communications and External Affairs, BP India, for her very able and objective representation of the Corporate Champions in the first full year of the initiative, beginning September 2006. Pia was incredibly patient and supportive while we went through the process of setting up our systems for the research and education collaborations and corporate engagement in the first year. She has contributed ample staff time and efforts in engaging with the UKIERI teams, specially in the Schools strand, to bring about a more robust engagement of the Corporate Champions in UKIERI. She has been ever ready for discussions and inputs for UKIERI and we are truly grateful for her proactive leadership.

Pia championed the agenda of a robust engagement for the corporate partners in the three UKIERI Strands (Schools, Higher Skills) with much diligence and enthusiasmEducation, and Professional and Technical .

At key events like Prime Minster (then Chancellor) Gordon Brown's presence in New Delhi for the UKIERI Awards, Pia made it a point to speak about the past record in Education and CSR on behalf of each of the Corporate Champions.

Pia has believed tremendously in the founding principles and the vision of the initiative. She personally engaged and interacted with the BP sponsored school clusters and made tremendous in kind contribution by involving students in the Petrotech India Exhibition with interactions with senior BP scientists. She also requested Christof Ruhl, Chief Economist, BP Group, to deliver a lecture on global energy economics for the students. Taking this initiative a step ahead, she donated comprehensive science kits to the cluster schools, imparted 'carbon footprint' training lessons and visited schools periodically to encourage and involve them with the BP association.

And last but not the least, we appreciate her constant encouragement and inputs for the UKIERI team.

We look forward to working with Anshul Mathur, who has taken over from Pia and has already initiated tangible, unique and sustainable measures of BP's engagement with the UKIERI Schools strand.