Northern Ireland
11 September 2013
BRITISH COUNCIL NORTHERN IRELAND
1. We share Northern Ireland’s great cultural assets: its vibrant society and culture, its education system and its arts.
2. We support Northern Ireland’s growth and prosperity.
3. We provide excellent value for Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
Northern Ireland’s great cultural assets
We share Northern Ireland’s great cultural assets: its vibrant society and culture, its education system, and its arts. This:
• builds trust in the people of Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK and supports Northern Ireland’s prosperity around the world
• encourages people to visit, study in and do business with Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
Growth and prosperity
• By sharing education, culture and the English language, we increase awareness and opportunities for Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK in leading economies such as China, Russia, India and Brazil.
• We support Northern Ireland’s higher and further education systems, encouraging international students to study in Northern Ireland and international higher education institutes to partner with Northern Ireland’s universities and colleges.
• We connect Northern Ireland schools with their international counterparts, helping school children to learn languages learn about the world and to gain valuable intercultural skills.
• The British Council is a lead partner in the first ever UK City of Culture, Derry–Londonderry 2013. The British Council is helping to showcase the city and Northern Ireland and to build a lasting legacy from the year.
Excellent value for the UK
• We take an entrepreneurial approach, earning over 75 per cent of our income through English teaching, administering UK exams and delivering contracts, as well as receiving funding from all four UK governments.
• Individuals and institutions worldwide increasingly buy our services.
• Income earned in this way funds the majority of our turnover, reducing our call on the taxpayer. This is great value for Northern Ireland and the countries of the UK.
Facts
We support projects and directly build relationships and international links for Northern Ireland organisations and individuals with more than 70 countries worldwide. In 2011–12, the British Council worked with more than 370 organisations across Northern Ireland. This included 311 schools, both universities and university training colleges and all six further education colleges.
Derry–Londonderry 2013 is the UK’s first City of Culture. We are supporting the international aspirations of Derry–Londonderry by partnering on five showcase projects and using our global network to add to the success of the campaign.
We deepened our strategic partnership with the Belfast Ulster Bank Festival at Queen’s University through a range of international interventions. In 2012, the British Council annual lecture took place within the festival for the first time. Irish President Michael D Higgins delivered the lecture in the Great Hall at Queen’s University. In late 2012, we published a new volume in the series Lives Entwined, which deals with the complex relationship between the UK and Ireland through the prism of cultural relations.
We have signed a partnership with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to jointly deliver the Artists’ International Development Fund aimed at providing international experience for emerging artists.
We are partnering with the newly opened Metropolitan Arts Centre (the MAC) to commission new Northern Irish work and help them develop an international dimension to their programme.
We are working with the Northern Ireland education sector through a wide range of programmes to create international opportunities for pupils, teachers, students and researchers. In 2011–12 we provided international education opportunities for 50,000 young people, reaching 24 per cent of Northern Ireland’s schools through our international programmes, including:
• Language Assistants – incoming teachers in a range of languages, including Irish.
• English Language Assistants – outgoing teachers placed in countries overseas.
• The International Association for the Exchange of Students of Technical Experience (IAESTE) – incoming and outgoing trainees gaining international business and technical experience. In January 2013, Belfast hosted the IAESTE International Conference on behalf of the UK, with 350 participants attending from 80 countries.
The Mock Council of the European Union brings together students from 29 schools across Northern Ireland for an annual debate in the Senate Chamber at Parliament Buildings.
Northern Ireland/China Links supports the development of bilateral relations in education and works closely with the newly designated Confucius Institute at the University of Ulster.
The British Council’s global education programme Connecting Classrooms is designed to help young people learn about global issues and become responsible global citizens. Since the new programme launched in June 2012, schools across Northern Ireland have already received funding for their partnerships with schools in Ghana, Uganda and Saudi Arabia. British Council Schools Online is a one-stop shop for international collaboration for schools. More than 360 schools in Northern Ireland have registered on the website and more than 160 schools have successfully gained the International Schools Award, 36 of which hold the prestigious Full Award.
The Study USA programme provides one-year placements for approximately 75 Northern Irish undergraduates annually in US universities.
Both of our universities are involved in many international links and partnerships. For example, Northern Ireland has research links with India through the UK India Education Research Initiative (UKIERI). Colleges and universities also benefit from international partnerships and connections through the British Council’s global network.
The English language teaching market contributes over £15 million annually to the Northern Ireland economy through the six language providers that have been accredited by the British Council through Accreditation UK. Accreditation UK is the quality assurance scheme for the UK English language teaching sector.
