“London is a phenomenally exciting place.” For Dr Robyn Klingler-Vidra, Vice Dean for Global Engagement at King’s Business School, King’s College London, the statement is not a tourist’s cliché but a distillation of over a decade of watching international students — many from India — find their footing, falter, adapt, and flourish in one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities.

In a wide-ranging conversation, she mapped how King’s is tightening its educational and research bonds with India, reframing teaching in an AI-driven era, and ensuring students view London itself as part of their learning journey.

India at the heart of global engagement

Indian students now account for 10–15% of King’s enrolments, with postgraduate applications rising 48% year-on-year, offers surging by 70%, and enrolments climbing 67%. These numbers, Klingler-Vidra argues, signal more than recruitment — they reflect integration.

King’s has signed progression agreements with five Indian institutions, most recently OP Jindal, offering streamlined admissions, faster processing, and in some cases, waived fees. Longstanding ties with institutes such as IIM Kozhikode have been reinforced with funded research collaborations and mobility programmes, backed by the university’s External Engagement Incubation Fund (EEIF). “It turns paper promises into funded projects and co-authored scholarship,” she notes.

Teaching in the age of AI

With generative AI transforming education, King’s takes a pragmatic stance. “It’s here, it’s a tool,” Klingler-Vidra says, encouraging students to experiment across platforms such as Gemini and ChatGPT. Instead of banning, the institution is redesigning assessment — prioritizing group work, presentations, and oral exams — to mirror workplace realities.

“The skill lies in prompting well, interrogating outputs, and presenting thinking,” she explains, turning what some see as disruption into an exercise in pedagogy.

London as a living classroom

For Klingler-Vidra, the university’s advantage lies not only in its lectures but in its location. “We call it London as a classroom,” she says, citing internships, industry partnerships, and the city’s cultural vibrancy as extensions of academic life. From student unions to authentic neighbourhood markets, London offers what she calls a “pulse of government, finance, and tech in one place.”

Beyond startups, toward systemic innovation

On entrepreneurship, Klingler-Vidra pushes for clarity. “More startups doesn’t necessarily solve societal challenges,” she cautions, urging integration of startups into wider industrial systems. For India, she stresses, the challenge is not just generating ventures but aligning them with the country’s industrial strengths and global competitiveness.

A message for Indian students

Her advice to Indian aspirants is clear: accessibility, integration, and rigour matter more than prestige alone. With scholarships supported by the British Council, streamlined admission pathways, and substantive research collaborations, King’s, she argues, offers more than a transactional education.

The message carries weight: Apply with ease, learn to harness AI, embrace London as a living campus, and carry curiosity as the true passport.