Northern Ireland
20 September 2012
We build trust and international opportunities for Northern Ireland.
- The British Council creates international opportunities for the people of Northern Ireland and the UK and builds trust for Northern Ireland worldwide. We call this cultural relations.
- We share Northern Ireland’s great cultural assets: its vibrant society and culture, its education system, its arts and the English language. This:
- builds trust in the people of Northern Ireland and 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 UK.
- We increase awareness and opportunities for Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK in the big emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil.
- We support Northern Ireland’s higher education system, encouraging international students to study in Northern Ireland and international universities to partner with Northern Ireland’s universities.
- We connect Northern Ireland schools with their international counterparts, helping Northern Irish schoolchildren to learn languages and learn about the world.
- The British Council is a lead partner in Derry City of Culture 2013 and showcases Northern Ireland’s art and artists worldwide.
- We take an entrepreneurial approach, earning 75% of our own income through English teaching, qualifications and contracts, as well as receiving funding from all four UK governments.
- Individuals and institutions increasingly buy our services and contract us for our skills in international development and to access UK expertise.
- 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.
We support projects and directly build relationships and international links for Northern Ireland organisations and individuals with 89 countries worldwide.
Northern Ireland is participating in UK Now, the biggest ever festival of UK arts in China. The festival includes the full range of art forms. The award-winning Sonic Arts Research Centre of Queen’s University will also present Chinese musicians at the Sonorities festival at Queen’s.
We are supporting a range of Northern Irish initiatives under the Cultural Olympiad programme, including a link with Jordan, under the International Inspiration programme.
Derry-Londonderry is the UK’s first City of Culture in 2013. We are supporting the international aspirations of Derry-Londonderry by partnering on four showcase projects and using our global network to add to the success of the campaign.
We have deepened our strategic partnership with the Belfast Ulster Bank Festival at Queen’s through a range of international interventions. In 2012, the British Council annual lecture will take place within the festival. Irish President Michael D. Higgins will deliver the lecture in the Great Hall at Queen’s University and it will be streamed live for an online audience globally.
In late 2012, we will publish a new volume in the series Lives Entwined, which explores the complex relationship between Britain and Ireland through the prism of cultural relations.
We have signed a partnership with Arts Council 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 2010/11 we provided international education opportunities for 50,000 young people, reaching 24% 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 2013, Belfast will host the IAESTE International Conference with 250 participants attending from 85 countries.
The International Study Visits programme provides overseas experience opportunities for Northern Irish teachers
We work closely with our team in Dublin on projects in education and the arts that help develop relationships on a North-South basis.
The Mock Council of the European Union brings together students from 28 schools across Ireland – North and South – for an annual debate in the Senate Chamber at Parliament Buildings
The Fulbright Teacher Exchange provides for teacher exchanges between Northern Ireland and USA
Northern Ireland/China Links supports the development of bilateral relations in education and works closely with the newly designated Confucius Institute at Ulster University.
The Global School Partnerships programme links 130 Northern Irish Schools with schools in the developing world, while Connecting Classrooms continues to support global connections and exchanges. Our new Schools Online programme streamlines the wide range of work we do on linking schools globally.
Through the EU Lifelong Learning programme, we manage Comenius in-service training, school partnerships, Comenius assistants and Comenius Regio (links between local authorities) across Northern Ireland
The Study USA programme provides one-year placements for approximately 75 Northern Irish undergraduates in American universities.
Our Internationalising Higher Education programme supports the international ambitions of our higher education institutions via market intelligence, policy dialogues and partnering initiatives.
