At Cranfield, we have been warmly welcoming students from India since the 1940s, when we were founded as the College of Aeronautics. 

Indian students applying to study at Cranfield receive special assistance from our Visas and Immigration Office to support them through their visa application process. 

Cranfield University has a long history of partnering with the Indian defence industry. For over 70 years, we have educated Indian students both from government and industry, and we continue to welcome them both at our Cranfield campus and at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom.  

Building the capability of the Indian defence industry

Cranfield has close relationships with global businesses such as Tata and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and has been involved with building the capacity of the Indian defence industry through knowledge transfer, both in the UK and in-country:

  • In March 2016, Cranfield University signed an MOU with Tata Power SED to explore the possibility of entering into a strategic partnership through research and development and academic study in the areas of defence-related engineering and emerging technologies.
  • The Indian Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) has been sending their officers to Cranfield University for more than 30 years. One of our alumni, Shri SC Bajpai has recently been appointed Director General and Chairman of OFB.
  • The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has been sending their scientists on specialists courses for nearly 50 years to Cranfield.
  • For the last ten years, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), India’s largest aerospace company, and Cranfield University have partnered in a 'High Flyers' MSc programme to prepare HAL officers to meet the future challenges of the aerospace sector in India, with an objective of creating leaders who will lead HAL into a new era through by providing technical leadership to the organisation. Over 200 HAL officers have now participated in this programme.

Cranfield at Aero India 2017

Aero India provides a fantastic forum for industry, government and academia to come together to address the needs of Indian defence and security. As one of the world’s largest providers of postgraduate defence education, Cranfield University was proud to continue to be a part of that discussion at the 2017 event in Bengaluru.

At Aero India, we continued to grow our long-established relationship with the Indian Government, industry and academia with new partnership agreements signed with Manipal University, the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Aadyah Aerospace Private Ltd and the Government of Telangana, among others. 

It is through these new exciting partnerships that we hope to play our part in empowering the defence and security industry in India to create the next generation of leaders, engineers, scientists and technologists.