Chair, Education Advisory Group (1 available role)
Member, Education Advisory Group (3 available roles)
Location of post: UK, Education Directorate
Pay band: Unremunerated but reasonable UK travel and expenses reimbursed
Requirements: Candidates must have the right to work in the UK
Duration: Three-year initial term, with possibility of renewal.
Closing date and time: Midnight (UK time) — Monday 27 June
About us
The British Council builds connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language.
We work in two ways – directly with individuals to transform their lives, and with governments and partners to make a bigger difference for the longer term, creating benefit for millions of people all over the world.
The British Council is a registered charity incorporated and governed by a Royal Charter. It is led by a Board of Trustees that is accountable to the UK’s Charity Commission for its activities. Read more about our work and access our annual reports here.
British Council Advisory Groups
To help us with the quality and independence of our thinking, we draw on the expert advice of our UK country advisory committees and sector advisory groups. There are four sector advisory groups to reflect the British Council’s work in Arts and the Creative Economy, Digital, Education and the English Language. The sector advisory groups are forums for advice. They have no decision making or executive powers. The groups report to the British Council’s Trustees.
Members of these groups serve in an advisory capacity and have no decision-making responsibilities.
The British Council’s work in Education
Our work in Education contributes to the UK’s International Education Strategy and the recently published FCDO International Development Strategy. Our Education portfolio has been designed to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and particularly to SDG4 - ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all, and these outcomes are embedded in our monitoring and evaluation plans. Gender equality is also embedded in our programmes, ensuring that we contribute to SDG5 – Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. We work across the Higher Education, TVET and Schools sectors and with Third Sector organisations to reach young people inside and outside of formal education.
As a cross-cutting theme in much of our Education work we support action on climate change and sustainability (SDG13). Similarly, we apply the principles of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) throughout our work and aim to be actively anti-racist in our approaches.
We achieve our objectives through a portfolio of six global programmes funded through a mixture of UK public funding, international donors and partners, and through commercial educational contracts. These programmes are:
- International Student Marketing and Mobility: Increasing the UK’s share of the global market for international student recruitment by promoting the UK as a world-class study destination.
- Alumni UK: A global digital networking platform to increase long-term engagement with UK alumni by keeping them connected to the UK and each other.
- Going Global Partnerships: Building stronger, more inclusive and globally connected HE and TVET systems which support social and economic growth.
- Insight & Engagement: Sharing global market intelligence and analysis with the UK Education sector to help them internationalise, and creating opportunities for knowledge exchange.
- Schools Global Programme: improving primary and secondary education in the UK and overseas.
- Youth, skills, leadership and positive pathways: supporting young people, particularly from marginalised groups, to gain skills, develop a voice and follow positive pathways.
The British Council Director Education and Education Advisory Group Secretary is Maddalaine Ansell.
Our equality commitment
EDI is central to the British Council’s work. Our organisational approach is described in our Equality Policy and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our organisational vision to become anti-racist in our culture and practices as outlined through the Anti-Racism Action Plan (ARAP).
We aim to abide by and promote equality legislation by following both the letter and the spirit of it to avoid unjustified discrimination, recognising discrimination as a barrier to equality of opportunity, inclusion and human rights. All staff worldwide are required to ensure their behaviour is consistent with our policies
We are actively working to improve diversity across all our governance structures so that they reflect the societies in which we work. We welcome applications from all sections of the community.
The British Council has Disability Confident Employer Status. We offer a guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role. Applicants are encouraged to highlight any specific requirements or adjustments needed to enable participation in the recruitment process.
The opportunity
The role of the Education Advisory Group (EAG) is to advise the Education leadership team and influence how the British Council’s vision and strategy are developed.
As a member, you will contribute to fulfilling the group’s purpose and objectives as outlined in the Terms of Reference.
In addition to three new members, we are also seeking to appoint a Chair, whose role is to lead the group to fulfil its purpose and objectives as outlined in the Terms of Reference.
Please ensure that you read the relevant role profile below before submitting an application.
If you are interested in applying for the role of EAG Chair, please ensure that you read the role profiles for both the Chair and the Member, as you would be expected to meet the essential criteria for both roles.
How to apply
If you are interested and feel that you are suitable for this role, then we would love to hear from you. Please send any queries to Jennifer Birtill, EAG Secretariat support, at the email address below.
Please apply by sending a copy of your CV and a covering letter addressed to the attention of EAG Secretary Maddalaine Ansell, by email to jennifer.birtill@britishcouncil.org, by no later than midnight (UK time) on Monday 27 June.