The British Council in Turkey is convening an international Universities’ forum on the 18th and 19th of February in Istanbul.
Nearly 100 senior university delegates from 14 countries will come together to discuss key issues around the use of English in the tertiary sector.
Internationalising Higher Education is a major goal for the UK and for universities globally. Greater internationalisation requires increasing collaboration with other countries, attracting international students, publishing in international journals and attracting international funding. And of course all of these require strong English language skills.
During these two days, some of the issues and challenges involved in developing English within the universities represented will be discussed.
There will be three half day sessions with UK speakers leading the discussion and opportunities for panel debate:
- Assessing English language skills in the university context
- Blending e-learning with face-to-face teaching to maximise the effectiveness of teaching and learning programmes
- Role of English in the development of world class universities

Uzbekistan is also represented in this Forum by the delegation from two state universities - the Uzbek State World Languages University and Bukhara State University.

On January 28-30 2013 the Minister of Higher and Secondary Specialised Education of Uzbekistan, Bakhodir Khodiev, attended the Global Summit for Education Ministers which brought together 101 ministers from around the world. The theme of the summit: Policy-making for Quantity, Quality and Impact. As part of the programme the Minister met with the British Council Chief Executive, Martin Davidson, rectors of the UK partner universities including London Metropolitan and Westminster University, the representatives of Microsoft and Intel and opened the 'Developing a Quality Culture' conference organised by London Metropolitan University in partnership with the British Council under the Enhancement of Quality Assurance System Through professional Development of Academic Leaders TEMPUS project. Read more about the Education World Forum here