Income trends Measured in millions

Grant to this region remained steady but will substantially increase in 2008–09 to reflect China’s importance as an emerging economy. Overall, income has increased significantly owing to a 25 per cent growth in our examinations business.

Country share of income Measured in millions
Country in bold denotes head office
Audience engagement Measured in millions

Our engagement result is up by 2.3 million – a 177 per cent increase. This arises primarily from the impact of targeting our resources and energies on a selective number of events and activities where we are confident that audiences will be receptive to what the UK can offer them.

Audience reach Measured in millions

Our audience reach figures have fallen by 12.6 million, a drop of 28 per cent. At face value this is disappointing but the reality is that much of the shift can be attributed to the transition period of our most successful website – www.in2English.com – which was run in partnership with a British Council-led website, English Online.

Strategic transition to a more effective delivery model is a price worth paying in the long term, even though it has resulted in a short-term decline in our remote audience figures. We are confident of a reversal in figures next year. In fact, English Online, our new community website, which is aimed at anyone learning or teaching English throughout mainland China and Hong Kong, has reached over 380,000 people since it was launched six months ago.

Customer satisfaction scores Measured in millions

Alongside increasing numbers for audience engagement, China still maintains high levels of customer satisfaction. As an illustration of this, our work in teaching and examinations showed rapid growth in 2007–08. While the number of examination candidates has increased significantly from last year, the customer satisfaction score for examinations remains at 76, reflecting our emphasis on high quality while we engage with larger audiences.

Performance impact and looking aheadWe are encouraged by our improved performance in the evaluation of long-term outcomes survey and the positive feedback received from long-term partners. The positive shift was particularly evident in the field of education and specifically from our partners in school linking, where we have run extensive programmes for many years and have shifted from isolated school-to-school links to a more sustainable model based on district links.

Our impact results show that internationalism has the highest index score of 89, an increase from 83 in 2006–07. This was owing to the success of our school links programme.

Scores towards positive partnerships and creative ideas and achievements also show improvement in comparison with last year.

Against the self-development output our teaching and examinations scores were weaker than in the majority of education projects, accounting for a lower result than last year’s. We are identifying points of good practice from higher performing areas and projects to achieve greater consistency and a restoration of the previous score in 2008–09.