Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from the British Council
Further to my letter of 11 October[3]
regarding changes to our British Council operation in Russia,
I am now writing to you again to update you on the latest developments.
As we are all aware, the current political climate means that
any news from Russia tends to attract considerable media interest,
and British Council activity in Russia is certainly no exception.
In light of this, I felt it was important to brief you personally
on the ongoing implementation of our revised strategy in Russia.
As described in my previous correspondence,
we decided to transfer our network of nine regional centres to
local partners. This transfer is now underway and will be completed
by end of December 2007. This is part of the British Council's
long term global strategy to concentrate resources on programmes
and on reaching a wider and greater number of people, reducing
dependency on expensive and management intensive "bricks
and mortar" based services.
In line with this, our information and library
services in Moscow will also be transferred to partners, ensuring
that the resources themselves are still accessible to customers.
We are re-structuring our teams in Moscow to deliver our programmes
efficiently across Russia through a more stream-lined way of working.
These changes in Moscow will be completed by 31 January 2008.
The focus on fewer, bigger projects and the move from physical
to virtual and partner-led services (including administration
of exams) is less resource demanding, and therefore this re-organisation
will involve a reduction in staff numbers. We are very sorry to
lose the staff affected by these changes but will be providing
them with the maximum support possible, including compensation
in full compliance with (and exceeding the minimum requirement
of) Russian legislation.
The British Council remains committed to working
in Russia, and we are currently preparing our plan of activity
for 2008 and beyond. I attach a short brief outlining some of
our current and forthcoming programmes to give you a flavour of
where the new strategy is taking us in terms of activity.
If you would like any further detail on any
aspect of the changes I have mentioned above, or on our Russia
operation in general, please do not hesitate to contact either
myself, or Melissa Stewart in the first instance. I know that
you have previously expressed some reservations regarding the
British Council's re-structuring across Europe—if you would
like to discuss the changes we are making, our three Regional
Directors for Europe will be in London next week and would be
more than happy to have a conversation either face to face or
over the phone. Please let us know if you would find this useful
and we will make the appropriate arrangements.
Kate Board
Geographical Director
BRITISH COUNCIL
RUSSIA CURRENT
AND FORTHCOMING
HIGHLIGHTS
UK and Russian Film Festivals, October 2007
The UK film festival played to sell-out audiences firstly in Moscow
and then in the regions. The films were carefully chosen to excite
debate among Russian audiences. This is England, for example,
was used to discuss extremism and xenophobia with a group of youth
leaders. There was a strong educational component, linking up
NFTS at Beaconsfield with Moscow film school, and industry networking
events, leading to three films subsequently being sold to Russian
distributors. As part of the project, we facilitated a sister
Russian film festival in the UK, with a producers' and directors'
networking event at BAFTA.
Football Unites—Sports project September/October
2007 Trips to Wembley for Russian amateur footballers, friendly
matches between fans and press delegations, and web-based competitions,
all spiced up the England/Russia European Championship qualifiers,
as we used sport to build trust between our peoples. The project
received significant press coverage in both countries. The highlight
was the laying of a wreath by England fans to the memory of the
27 million Russian war dead at the eternal flame under the Kremlin
walls. Through the project, we managed to build a new set of senior
sports contacts, including the Russian Sports minister himself,
which will be very useful for future projects.
BRIDGE (BRITISH DEGREES
IN RUSSIA)
AND QUEST (QUALITY
ASSURANCE IN
HIGHER EDUCATION)
PROJECTS 2006-07
Through facilitating 40 new joint degree programmes
between Russian and UK universities, delivered in Russia, we have
ensured that not only the rich and famous can benefit from a UK-style
education. The courses are taught by a combination of Russian
and British lecturers, and enrolment has been high. We have also
shared UK expertise through our capacity-building QUEST programme,
which has brought together consortia from industry and higher
education institutions to develop competency statements for Russian
Master's degrees which will ensure that students from such courses
have the skills and knowledge that employers need.
THE NEXT
STAGE
We are supporting the best and most innovative
UK theatre groups, spotted by our Russian partners at the Edinburgh
showcase, to perform in Russia. Our aim is to bring their work
to new audiences, and give Russian theatre entrepreneurs the chance
to meet them and share their experience in writing and producing
new shows. The first UK company to appear in Moscow will be Stamping
Ground Theatre, who will perform during the Stanislavsky Festival
in Moscow in November. Next year Golden Mask festival, the most
prestigious of Russian theatre festivals, has invited five UK
companies to perform and conduct workshops with Russian counterparts.
LOW CARBON
CHALLENGE
We have worked closely over the last two years
with Russian institutions tackling the effects of global warming
and looking into alternative sources of energy, and next year
will see an increase in our activity in this area, as we join
up with the pan-European project Low Carbon Challenges. We will
be bringing our high-level contacts to a discussion forum on renewable
energy, to be held in partnership with the British Embassy in
February, and we will also be taking the discussion across continents
as we link up Scotland, India, and Brazil by video conference
in March.
CAREER LADDERS
FOR ENGLISH
TEACHERS
We are launching some exciting English language
teacher training programmes from January 2008, which will be the
further step towards creating a career path for teachers of English
in Russia, building on our successful INSET programme which has
reached over 17,000 teachers. The TKT global pilot will be done
in Moscow and St. Petersburg, leading to the creation of a cadre
of 50 teacher trainers, who will become a resource for their colleagues
across Russia. Their experience will inform similar projects in
other regions of the world.
GLOBAL SCHOOL
LINKS
We have a strong track record of creating school
links and developing joint curriculum projects between Russian
and UK schools. With significant partnership funding, we aim to
build larger scale partnerships between local education authorities
next year, focusing on areas of common interest such as sport,
tolerance, and leadership. This will be part of a global pilot.
5 December 2007
3 HC 51 (Session 2007-08) Ev 180 Back
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