Anuj Bidve killing: UK varsities seek to limit damage

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British universities have moved to limit the adverse impact of Anuj Bidve's gruesome killing by reassuring Indian students about their safety and security here, amid reports of drop in applications from India at UK institutions.

The killing of 23-year-old Bidve in Salford on December 26 has caused much concern among Indian parents whose wards are studying here or are considering applying to courses from the next academic year starting September-October 2012.

There are already reports of a 20 per cent drop in applications from India at some UK universities. Like Bidve, a large percentage of Indian students studying in the UK are postgraduate students.

Official estimates put the contribution of Indian and other international students at 5 billion pounds to the UK economy annually.

Referring to the Bidve killing, Professor Eric Thomas, president of Universities UK, said: "We at Universities UK would want to reassure current and future Indian students and their parents that this kind of incident is thankfully exceptionally rare."

He said compared to other countries, the UK remains a safe and tolerant country with low levels of violence and street crime.
Prof. Thomas recalled that a recent survey by the British Council showed that only a very small proportion of students had ever experienced any kind of crime here.

The drop in applications is being attributed to changes to the student visa system, mainly the scrapping of the 'Post-Study Work Visa' from April 2012, which is popular with self-financing Indian students who seek to recover some of the expenses of their course by working here for two years after the course is completed.

Indian students are the second largest international group (after China) in UK universities, numbering 38,500 in the year 2009-10, according to figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

'We do not blame people of the city'

Meanwhile, Bidve's parents visited the site on Friday where he was gunned down, saying it had been an 'exceedingly difficult journey'.

They have flown back with the body and a cremation has been scheduled for Friday.

Father Subhash and mother Yogini laid flowers at the scene in Salford, a suburb of the northwestern city of Manchester, and prayed for their 23-year-old son.

The couple, from the western Indian city of Pune, said they had been 'deeply moved' by the support people there had shown them.

"We have made the journey from India in order to see Anuj, see the place where he died, and most importantly take Anuj home with us," Subhash Bidve said in a statement read out to reporters.

"As you can imagine this has been an exceedingly difficult journey to make. Anuj was our only son and we cannot comprehend this dreadful tragedy."

He added: "We do not blame the people of the city for what happened. The only person we blame is the man responsible for taking Anuj away from us."

A 20-year-old English man, Kiaran Stapleton, who described himself as "Psycho" in court, is accused of the murder and has been remanded in custody.

Anuj, who was studying at Lancaster University, was shot in the head at point-blank range in Salford as he walked into Manchester city centre with Indian friends on December 26.