Indian student wins top UK University scholarship

An Indian student from Bengaluru has won a prestigious scholarship worth 5,000 pounds, which is awarded to an undergraduate pursuing any of the 24 subjects offered at the University of Dundee, UK.

Rajvir Singh, 18, who studies Psychology and French at the University of Dundee, will receive the 2022 Jainti Dass Saggar Memorial Scholarship for Excellence, which supports a student who aims to give back to their community.

The award which, is given to one aspiring student from India each year, honours Scotland's first non-white elected politician and doctor Jainti Dass Saggar, who travelled all the way from Punjab to study at the University over 100 years ago.

Saggar went on to use his medical education to help transform the lives of people living in the city of Dundee, and served as the city councillor for 18 years until his death in 1954.

Singh, who was "grateful" to have been awarded the scholarship, said that his personal experiences with mental health lay behind his choice of course.

"I wanted to study psychology because, like many others, I have struggled with mental health. Even though support is available in India, there's a lot of social stigma around it... I'm very grateful to have been awarded the Saggar Scholarship," Singh said in astatement.

"My hope is to use my education to become a therapist, so I can be the kind of support for others that I didn't always get," he added.

Singh has also been awarded the Global Excellence Scholarship worth 6,000 pounds per year, which is given to students who show excellence through their academic activities and have travelled internationally to study in the UK.

"The UK is really good for psychology. The BPS (British Psychological Society) accredited courses are amongst the best in the world, so I wanted to come to the UK," he added.