Home > About us > Our statement – about the British Council’s status and role in Korea

STATUS The British Council is the United Kingdom's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. The British Council is organised as a non-profit charity under the laws of England and Wales and operates as a 'non-departmental public body' sponsored by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (the UK counterpart of MOFAT). As the UK’s main organisation concerned with international cultural relations, we undertake a broad mission to increase appreciation of the UK's creative ideas and achievements, and to build mutually beneficial relationships between people in the UK and other countries including Korea.

Since 1981, the British Council has operated in Korea at the invitation of the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) in accordance with a cultural-exchange agreement between the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom. This agreement was updated by an agreement in 2005 which clearly sets out the scope and activities of the British Council in Korea. All the activities we undertake are in accordance with the provisions of this agreement.

• FUNDING

Though we charge fees for tuition to cover the cost of providing instruction and use some of the money to underwrite our larger mission, we do not earn a profit in Korea. In 2007/08, the UK Treasury contributed a grant of approximately £0.9 million (approximately W1.8 billion) to support the activities of the British Council in Korea and for Korea-related programmes.

• ACTIVITIES

Our cultural mission includes supporting the arts, science, education and professional exchanges. We promote a wide ranging programme of events, links and partnerships. We organise a range of projects and events in the names of ‘Climate Change’, ‘Creative Cities’, ‘Access English’ and ‘Connecting Classrooms’, all of which are elaborated in detail on our website. We cooperate with Gongju City for their city renewal project and with Seoul Metropolitan City Government for Seoul Design Olympiad. We work closely with Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) on in-service training for English teachers, with the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation on English language testing and with the Ministry of Education to share ideas on education policy and to develop links between schools in Korea and UK. All this, and many other programmes, are conducted with financial support from the British Council for the benefit of people in Korea and the UK.

In education, the British Council represents UK universities and schools, and administers IELTS, a world leading test of communication in the English language. And we teach English. Our fees are comparable to other leading English language schools in Korea – at least to those providing high quality training. We are in the business of providing the highest quality available in Korea.

As always, we are currently examining ways to deepen our commitment to the Republic of Korea and to provide more and better opportunities for cultural relations.