Henry V Jardine, the US Consul General, feels that many US universities want to establish their campus in Kolkata and adjoining regions, but the Central Government is hesitant on such initiatives. The envoy said this at the sidelines of the pro gramme for International Education week. Jardine said the state government has shown keen interest in the collaborating with the American Universities.

"I have spoken to the Chief Minister and the Finance Minister, they have been very cooperative about the issues on Higher Education," he said.

"In West Bengal, we have tie-ups in Virginia Tech University and Jadavpur University, IIT Kharagpur and George University and for setting up a Biotech park in the vicinity of IIT Kharagpur with the cooperation of University of Berkeley," he said.

In certain cases, the universities in West Bengal contact their counterparts in the US while in other cases, the US Consulate and USEFI helps them to do so.

At the inauguration of International Education Week, Jardine said since 2001-2002, India has been number one in sending its students to the US. In 2006-20007, about 83,833 students had gone - which is 14.4 per cent of the total students visiting the US.

At the international education week, universities like De Sales Uni versity, University of Kansas, Williamsdale University and various schools from the US will take part, so they lure more students from the country.

The United States Education Foundation in India (USEFI) has also announced the US Department of State funded 2008 Fulbright, Foreign LanguageTeaching Assistant (FLTA) programme. Selected FLTA fellows will teach Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi or Urdu at select US campuses during their nine month degree grant from August-September 2008.