Further memorandum submitted by the British
Council
1. Continuing international tension and
the rise of intolerance have made improved inter-cultural understanding
between nations and peoples an issue of critical importance, particularly
for the United Kingdom as one of the most prominent players on
the international stage.
The British Council plays a fundamental role
in building long-term relationships with other countries in ways
which can withstand political disruption and in winning recognition
abroad for the UK's values, ideas and achievements. It does this
through both its network of 216 offices and teaching centres in
109 countries, and its rapidly expanding range of web-based products
and services.
2. REACHING YOUNGER,
WIDER AUDIENCES
Nurturing relationships on behalf of the UK
with those with the potential to become future decision-makers
and opinion-formers in their own societies is one of the most
important contributions the British Council makes to future international
stability.
This has become even more important since September
11, 2001, the war in Afghanistan, the conflict in Iraq, and differences
in the Middle East, have polarised public opinion globally. The
UK's standing with the public in many parts of the world can no
longer be taken for granted. How we interact with those who will
shape their societies' attitudes towards us in the future is fundamental
to Britain's capacity to influence the international agenda.
Three years ago, the British Council embarked
on an ambitious five-year strategy to reach younger audiences,
understand their aspirations, and deliver products and services
for them which would enhance the UK's reputation as a modern,
dynamic country of relevance to them.
It has shifted resources into transitional and
developing countries, particularly in central and eastern Europe
and in the Arab and Muslim world, where impact with students and
young professionals has been increased. It has used resources
from the 2000 Spending Review to make a quantum leap in its reach
in China and Russia, where by satisfying demand for access to
educational opportunities, it is simultaneously improving perceptions
of the UK among the aspiring young.
3. EXPLOITING
NEW TECHNOLOGY
TO EXPAND
THE UK'S
REACH
Extending the reach and impact of its work through
a combination of IT-based and face-to-face services is fundamental
to the British Council's success.
It is transforming its public face in the world's
largest cities through the creation of a network of 50 ICT-based
Knowledge and Learning Centres offering on-line services and video-conferencing
facilities which expand distance learning opportunities for the
young. Subject areas include management, IT, English language
learning, literature and the arts.
Six centres are now open, and the initial experience
from cities as varied as Delhi, Cairo, Belgrade and Kuala Lumpur
demonstrates they are attracting larger numbers of users with
an improved, younger age profile than the traditional library
facility. Where security or political reasons have impeded contact
between young people, the British Council has developed a network
of video-conferencing facilities, for example in the Palestinian
territories and across the Green Line in Cyprus.
Working with strategic partners is also expanding
the Council's reach. The in2english project establishing
Centre for English Language Learning Support in China, was launched
by the Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, last November. Run jointly
with the BBC and China's central radio and television university,
the initiative reached 370,000 users in its first four months.
A similar project is now being developed for
learners of English in the Arab world, based in the Council's
new Knowledge and Learning Centre in Cairo and for Hispanic learners
of English through the British Council in Mexico.
4. TARGETING
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
TO TRANSITIONAL
AND DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES
The value of the British Council's role was
recognised by the Government in the 2002 Spending Review, which
increased its grant-in-aid from £156.5 million in 2002-03
to £184.7 million in 2005-06—a cash terms increase
of £35 million over the spending review triennium.
The additional funding has been allocated for
strengthening our activities in transitional countries and the
developing world. Additional resources have been committed to
the Connecting Futures initiative, a five-year programme dedicated
to improving mutual understanding between young people in the
UK and in the Arab and Muslim world.
Extra resources are also being used for civil
society and leadership development for young future leaders in
Africa, in support of the New Partnership for Africa's Development
(NePAD). From 2004-05, extra funding will help strengthening civil
society and stability in the countries bordering the European
Union after expansion in 2004.
Funding has also been made available to increase
the British Council's support for the Prime Minister's initiative
for the recruitment of fee-paying international students to the
UK. The initiative is on track to meet its ambitious targets of
an additional 50,000 students in higher education and 25,000 in
further education.
Additional funding from the 2000 spending review
has resulted in a major expansion of our services in Russia. It
has enabled the Council to increase the UK's work in reaching
some 35,000 teachers in educational curriculum reform. Every second
schoolchild in Russia now studies English from the New Millennium
English textbook produced by the British Council. By 2005, we
forecast there will be 400,000 users of the Council's 15 centres
across the Federation, compared to 250,000 in 2000-01.
In China, extra resources have enabled the Council
to expand its activities from the main four provinces to an additional
10 middle-sized cities and provinces. British Council marketing
of UK education has helped increase the numbers of Chinese fee-paying
students studying in the UK have risen from 3,000 in 1997-98 to
28,000 in 2002-03, making the UK the first choice for studying
abroad. The council's target is to make the UK the most important
and respected partner in education and training for China by 2006.
5. COMMITMENT
TO JOINED-UP
APPROACH TO
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
Improving the standing of the UK in the current
global climate will only be achieved by a co-ordinated approach
to public diplomacy. To achieve maximum impact, the British Council
is committed to ensuring that its activities complement those
of other players, notably the Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
British Trade International, Visit Britain and the devolved administrations.
The British Council, along with all these players, is concerned
with ensuring there is a real long-term improvement in the public
image of the UK in key countries abroad.
The Council has made a major contribution to
the Think UK campaign in China, aimed at improving perceptions
of the UK by highlighting British innovation and creativity to
China's successor generation. Although a number of the activities
have been delayed by the onset of SARS, others—notably the
imaginative initiative of involving 300 local people in Guangzhou
in constructing Antony Gormley's Asian Field project—have
captured considerable attention and publicity in China.
The British Council is working closely with
the FCO and other public diplomacy players within the framework
of the Public Diplomacy Strategy Board to identify appropriate
countries for future campaigns aimed at improving overall perceptions
of the United Kingdom.
6. REBUILDING
PARTNERSHIPS WITH
IRAQ
There is an urgent need for the United Kingdom
to re-establish its educational and cultural links with Iraq.
Iraq's once-strong university sector has suffered from years of
neglect and lack of contact with the outside world, while its
further education sector is in urgent need of capacity building
if the country is to be able to build a viable economic base.
In the 1980s the UK played to host to some 1,600
Iraqi post-graduate students a year. Links with medical colleges
were particularly strong before the first Gulf war. The challenge
now is to re-establish the UK as the partner of choice in education.
Since 1991, an entire generation of young people has grown up
without contact with the outside world. We need to address these
two issues as rapidly as possible if the UK is to make a serious
contribution to change and to improving economic prospects and
long term stability. It is now essential that access to educational
opportunities and to cultural contact with the UK and other democratic
countries is created.
The British Council has co-ordinated the creation
of an overall strategy for education and training in Iraq: this
sets out how UK expertise can be used to help satisfy immediate
needs and offer support, rebuilding relationships for the short
to medium term, and establish long-term partnerships for sustainability.
It is important that the long-term bi-lateral strategy between
the UK and Iraq is based upon principles of mutuality, inclusion
and understanding.
Education should be seen as fundamental building-block
in establishing long-term economic stability in Iraq, through
the empowerment of networks of professionals and administrators
instrumental to shaping reform. The strategy draws on the UK's
particular expertise in curriculum reform, re-skilling the workforce
for economic growth, educational publishing, teacher training
and professional development, and student and teacher exchange.
The British Council will re-establish its own
operation in Iraq as soon as the security situation permits. Before
the first Gulf war, the operation in Iraq was one of the largest
in the Middle East, with a thriving teaching centre and outreach
activities in Mosul and Basra. While it will be some years before
there is sufficient demand for paid services for English language
teaching and examinations, it is important that relationships
are re-established and nurtured through grant-funded activities
as soon as this can practically take place. To this end, the British
Council is planning the re-allocation of £1 million for 2003-04
to ensure that its office in Baghdad can be reopened and initial
activities started (security situation permitting). It is now
recruiting a Director Iraq who will work with networks of Iraqi
professionals and influencers before setting up the operation
in Iraq itself.
7. SUPPORTING
THE REFORM
PROCESS IN
THE MIDDLE
EAST
Research undertaken through the British Council's
Connecting Futures initiative in attitudes of young people towards
the UK and other industrialised western countries demonstrated
that people aged between 18 and 35 in the region retain a broadly
positive view of the UK despite the fierce opposition they expressed
to the political stances taken by the US and some of its allies.
The research indicated that there was a strong
appetite among relatively well-educated young aspirant professionals
in the region to engage with the UK through wider access to English
language learning and other educational opportunities.
Following publication of the UN's First Arab
Human Development Report, the British Council is increasing its
engagement with change agents in the region, particularly in encouraging
more accountable governance, reform of education system and greater
access to English language skills.
8. ARTS FOR
A DANGEROUS
WORLD
Arts continue to be a fundamental way of reaching
out across cultural divides. The British Council brought the first
UK theatre production to Iran for 25 years with the Dundee Repertory
Theatre staged a production of The Winter's Tale in Tehran. This
was the first large-scale event organised by the British Council
since its return to Tehran in 2001 after a 20-year absence, doing
much to create mutual trust and confidence with the Iranians.
A large-scale new photography exhibition, which
opens in Jakarta in July 2003, explores the range and diversity
of Muslim experience and life in the UK. The British Council has
collaborated with professional curators from Malaysia and Indonesia
to advise on the project which includes black and white portraits
of schoolchildren in Manchester and Bradford and the typology
of religious buildings in Britain from the East London Mosque
to former cinemas and converted council flats.
A two-hour weekly radio programme called The
Selector now brings an estimated 35 million people a week in 17
countries into close contact with the UK's contemporary music
scene. Partnerships with local radio stations widens the range
beyond the normal range of contacts for UK music, allowing listeners
to understand more fully the many cultural, ethnic and national
influences on British music.
9. GOVERNANCE
AND HUMAN
RIGHTS
The British Council has recently started a major
programme to strengthen the capacity of the 17 National Human
Rights Commissions operating in the Commonwealth. Supported by
the FCO's Human Rights Project Fund, the Council is working with
the commissions on improving compliance with UN agencies responsible
for monitoring human rights, and on how they can use public inquiries
and hearings to investigate systemic human rights concerns. The
events within the programme have also been attended by representatives
of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, thus enabling
them to build links with commissions from neighbouring countries.
In Nigeria, the British Council leads a consortium
implementing DfID's access to justice programme. One of the first
initiatives of the project has been to support the formation of
a coalition of 15 women's groups for access to justice in the
almost entirely Muslim state of Jigawa. The project has also supported
a consultative forum dialogue between women, religious scholars
and Sharia judges about the problems faced by women in engaging
with judicial institutions and processes.
Other areas of British Council work cover citizenship
education and democracy, conflict resolution, economic, social
and cultural rights, and the rights of women. Recent work in the
West Bank and Gaza, for example, has included the development
of a Citizen's Rights Charter, the establishment of a Forum for
Democracy and peace education for teachers.
10. SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
Portraying the UK as a world-class leader in
science and technology is central to ensuring our higher education
institutions continue to attract top-level international post-graduate
students. But it is also vital the UK is seen as being on the
cutting-edge of scientific discovery and technological innovation.
The British Council has increased its science
spending from £5 million in 2001-02 to £8 million in
2003-04, and its science network stretches to 46 countries. It
promotes both excellence in international science and understanding
science in society. Recent initiatives have included a major exhibition
travelling the world called DNA+ 50 which celebrates the discovery
in Cambridge of the double helix structure; and a DNA web portal
which encourages international audiences to explore controversial
issues such as stem cell technology, genetically modified engineering
and the use of embryos.
In September 2002, more than 100,000 web users
took part in the daily summit web-log run by the British Council
at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg—giving
them instant access to the decision-making processes and debates
taking place at the conference.
The British Council
June 2003
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