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70-662: Administered by the Gratiaen Trust based in Sri Lanka, the Gratiaen Prize accepts printed books and manuscripts in a range of genres including fiction, poetry, drama, creative prose and literary memoir. Entries may be submitted by both authors and publishers. Submissions are accepted between 1 and 31 December in a given year and are assessed by a panel of three judges appointed by the trust who are required to short-list three to five entries. The short-list event (open to

140-472: A Secure English Language Test for visa applicants only inside the UK. It also meets requirements for immigration to Australia , where Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and Pearson Test of English Academic are also accepted, and New Zealand. In Canada, IELTS, TEF , or CELPIP are accepted by the immigration authority. No minimum score is required to pass the test. An IELTS result or Test Report Form

210-525: A court order, closed down the venue scheduled to host the Festival's closing event since there was Palestinian Authority involvement, but the British Council stepped in and the evening was relocated to its grounds. The British Council supports the festival, also known as PalFest. A controversial issue arose in 2012 because PalFest's website states that they endorse the "2004 Palestinian call for

280-697: A former Literature Director of the British Council itself. In March 2007, the British Council announced its "intention to increase its investment in the Middle East , North Africa and Central and Southern Asia ". In June 2007, MPs were told of further closures in Tel Aviv and East Jerusalem (where there had been a British Council Library since 1946). The British Council libraries in Athens and Belgrade were also scheduled to close. Similarly in India,

350-625: A general rule, the top ranked universities in the United States tend to require a higher IELTS band (typically 7.0). Most universities accept scores between 6–7 as being suitable for undergraduate study in English. Full details about the organizations which accept IELTS and the scores they require can be found on the IELTS Global Recognition System website. A number of Commonwealth countries use IELTS scores as

420-541: A humorous way by Lawrence Durrell in his collection of anecdotes about a diplomat's life on foreign postings for the Foreign Office – Antrobus Complete . In the six Olivia Manning novels that make up The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy, Guy Pringle is an employee of the British Council, and Council politics make up several of the plot points. The books portray Eastern Europe and the Middle East in

490-678: A literary award is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh language in Argentina ); encouraging cultural, scientific, technological and educational cooperation with

560-470: A manuscript which she claims is a novel to an English publisher who she says is "her friend"! It is also featured in one of the scenes in Graham Greene 's The Third Man – the character Crabbin, played by Wilfrid Hyde-White in the film, worked for The British Council. In 1946, the writer George Orwell advised serious authors not to work for it as a day job arguing that "the effort [of writing]

630-581: A proof of prospective immigrants' competence in English. Australia's immigration authorities have used IELTS to assess English proficiency of prospective migrants since May 1998, when this test replaced the 'access:' test that had been previously used. There are different IELTS score requirements for different types of visa. New Zealand has used the IELTS t est since 1995. There are different IELTS score requirements for different types of visa and type of applicant. Originally, applicants who could not achieve

700-959: A rethink of its strategy in Latin America . In Italy , British Council closed its offices in Turin and Bologna and reduced the size of offices in Milan and Rome (with the closure of the library in the latter). Charles Arnold-Baker , author of the Companion to British History said of the British Council's shift in priorities: "This whole policy is misconstrued from top to bottom. We are going somewhere where we can't succeed and neglecting our friends in Europe who wish us well. The only people who are going to read our books in Beirut or Baghdad are converts already." The article also points out that

770-404: A score for each test component – Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. The individual scores are then averaged and rounded to produce an Overall Band Score. There is no pass or fail. IELTS is scored on a nine-band scale, with each band corresponding to a specified competence in English. Overall Band Scores are reported to the nearest half band. The following rounding convention applies: if

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840-412: A single 12-month period for the first time ever, making it the world's most popular English language test for higher education and immigration. In 2019, over 508,000 international students came to study in the UK, making it the world's most popular UK ELT (English Language Test) destination. Over half (54%) of those students were under 18 years old. The English Language Testing Service (ELTS), as IELTS

910-697: A summary using words taken from the text and matching information/headings/features in the text/sentence endings. Test takers should be careful when writing down their answers as they will lose marks for incorrect spelling and grammar. Texts in IELTS Academic Texts in IELTS General Training IELTS Academic IELTS General Training The speaking test is a face-to-face interview between the test taker and an examiner. The speaking test contains three sections. Test takers receive

980-463: A test taker to retake any one section (Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking) of the test. IELTS is accepted by most Australian , British , Canadian , European , Irish and New Zealand academic institutions, by over 3,000 academic institutions in the United States , and by various professional organisations across the world. IELTS is approved by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) as

1050-547: Is Paul Thompson and its chief executive is Scott McDonald. The British Council is a charity governed by Royal Charter . It is also a public corporation and an executive nondepartmental public body (NDPB), sponsored by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office . Its headquarters are in Stratford, London. Its chair is Paul Thompson , and its CEO is Scott McDonald . The British Council's total income in 2014–2015

1120-610: Is a wing of our Secret Intelligence Services, however minor. Officially it is no such thing but there are connections. Why should it be otherwise because all information is invaluable? After all, the British Council also deals with trade missions and inevitably that involves low-grade intelligence-gathering." In 2005, along with the Alliance française , the Dante Alighieri Society , the Goethe-Institut ,

1190-503: Is an international standardized test of English language proficiency for non-native English language speakers. It is jointly managed by the British Council , IDP and Cambridge English , and was established in 1989. IELTS is one of the major English-language tests in the world. The IELTS test has two modules: Academic and General Training. IELTS One Skill Retake was introduced for computer-delivered tests in 2023, which allows

1260-555: Is available on all 48 dates per year and the General Training version is available on 24 dates. There used to be a minimum time limit of 90 days before a person was allowed to retake the test. However this restriction has been withdrawn and currently there is no limit for applicants to retake the test. Just over half (51%) of test takers take IELTS to enter higher education in a foreign country. The IELTS minimum scores required by academic institutions and by course vary. As

1330-467: Is currently hosted in the UK by Sian Eleri since 2024 - previous hosts include Jamz Supernova, Goldierocks and Andrea Oliver – and many countries take the English language version of the show and create a new show from the tracks and features, translating the 'links' into the local language. The British Council has been running a teacher training programme in North Korea since 2001. In July 2014

1400-461: Is for test takers who want to work, train, study at a secondary school or migrate to an English-speaking country. The difference between the Academic and General Training versions is the content, context, and purpose of the tasks. All other features, such as timing allocation, length of written responses, and reporting of scores, are the same. IELTS Academic and General Training both incorporate

1470-820: Is in Berlin . Formally it is to its sponsoring department, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office , that the UK Parliamentary Table Office refers any parliamentary questions about the British Council. The effectiveness of British Council efforts to promote higher education in China was examined in the UK by the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Skills in a report issued in August 2007. It expressed concern that in terms of joint educational programmes involving Chinese universities,

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1540-592: Is issued to all test takers with a score from "Band 1" ("non-user") to "Band 9" ("expert user") and each institution sets a different threshold. There is also a "Band 0" score for those who did not attempt the test. Institutions are advised not to consider a report older than two years to be valid, unless the user proves that they have worked to maintain their level. In 2017, over 3 million tests were taken in more than 140 countries, up from 2 million tests in 2012, 1.7 million tests in 2011 and 1.4 million tests in 2009. In 2007, IELTS administered more than one million tests in

1610-530: Is too much to make if one has already squandered one's energies on semi-creative work such as teaching, broadcasting or composing propaganda for bodies such as the British Council". In her autobiography, Dame Stella Rimington , the first woman head of MI5 , mentions working for British Council in India before joining the British Intelligence Services. The British Council was referred to (and its man on-station, Goole ) – frequently in

1680-629: The Alliance française and the Goethe-Institut , unlike the British Council, are both expanding and replenishing libraries Europe-wide. France opened its new library in Tel Aviv in 2007, just a few months after the British Council closed there and shut down the British Council library in West Jerusalem . In Gaza , the Institut français supports the Gaza municipal library in partnership with

1750-466: The Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) or UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) who receive two copies. Test Report Forms are valid for two years. Test takers can take IELTS in more than 140 countries and in over 4,000 locations. There are up to 48 test dates available per year. Each test centre offers tests up to four times a month depending on local demand. The Academic version

1820-592: The Instituto Cervantes , and the Instituto Camões , the British Council shared in the Princess of Asturias Award for the outstanding achievements of Western Europe's national cultural agencies in communications and the humanities. At the time of this joint award, the full extent of The British Council's closure policies in Europe was not yet public knowledge. Royle also goes on to note that

1890-853: The Persian Gulf area. Council offices were closed in Lesotho , Eswatini , Ecuador and provincial Länder in Germany in 2000–2001 – as well as Belarus – prompting Parliamentary criticism. Subsequent promises by British Council Chair Neil Kinnock to a conference in Edinburgh that the Belarus closure would hopefully prove to be just a "temporary" withdrawal proved illusory. The British Council office in Peru also closed in September 2006 as part of

1960-628: The 1980s, test taker numbers were low (4,000 in 1981 rising to 10,000 in 1985) and there were practical difficulties administering the test. As a result, the IELTS Revision Project was set up to oversee the redesign of the test. In order to have international participation in the redesign, the International Development Program of Australian Universities and Colleges ( IDP ), now known as IDP: IELTS Australia , joined Cambridge English Language Assessment and

2030-595: The British Council (due to a lack of regulations on its activities) along with the general consulate in St. Petersburg . The move was reported to be retaliation against the UK's actions toward Russia for the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal . The British Council has been a primary partner of the Palestine Festival of Literature since the Festival's beginning in 2008. In 2009, the Israeli police, acting on

2100-619: The British Council Associate Parliamentary Group. Nigel Griffiths MP was Vice-Chair of this British Council lobby group until stepping down as an MP. In 2008, the British Council was called before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) following the earlier publication of a National Audit Office report. The subsequent PAC report confirmed that Nigel Griffiths MP – Vice Chair of The British Council Associate Parliamentary Group –

2170-643: The British Council Libraries at Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram were closed despite protests from library users as part of the Council's policy to "reduce its physical presence" in the country and to divert funds to mega projects in the fields of culture, education, science and research. British Council libraries and offices have also been closed in several other countries judged by the British Council to be of little strategic or commercial importance, as it refocused its activities on China and

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2240-741: The British Council announced a global programme with the BBC , British Film Institute , the National Theatre , the Royal Shakespeare Company , the Shakespeare 400 consortium, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and Shakespeare's Globe to celebrate Shakespeare's life and work on the 400th anniversary of this death. Selector Radio is a weekly two-hour radio show, produced by Folded Wing for

2310-496: The British Council gave the example of India where their UK India Education and Research Initiative is being "championed" by British multinational oil companies such as BP and Shell , the pharmaceutical giant GSK and arms company BAE Systems . Criticism of British Council marketing efforts in this area has also come from Scotland where The Sunday Herald obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act showing that

2380-653: The British Council in Tripoli to a daughter of President Gaddafi who had previously been said to have been killed in a US raid on Gaddafi's residence in 1986. In July 2011, the Hong Kong edition of China Daily reported on the flourishing "ghost-writing" industry that critics suggest has sprung up around the British Council IELTS tests in China. IELTS International English Language Testing System ( IELTS / ˈ aɪ . ɛ l t s / )

2450-462: The British Council in more than 850 towns and cities in 2014–2015. The British Council jointly runs the global IELTS English-language standardised test with the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations and IDP Education Australia. Over 2.5 million IELTS tests were delivered in 2014–2015. In 2014, the British Council launched its first MOOC, Exploring English: Language and Culture, on

2520-500: The British Council relaunched the global website Education UK for international students interested in UK education. The site receives 2.2 million visitors per year and includes a search tool for UK courses and scholarships, advice and articles about living and studying in the UK. From 2014 to 2020, the British Council and Ecorys UK jointly administered almost €1 billion of the €14.7 billion Erasmus+ programme offering education, training, youth and sports opportunity for young people in

2590-640: The British Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for cultural and educational exchange. The British Council's Young Creative Entrepreneurs Awards identify and support talented people from across the creative industries, such as the International Young Publisher of the Year , International Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year , International Young Music Entrepreneur of

2660-504: The British Council to form the international IELTS partnership which delivers the test to this day. This international partnership was reflected in the new name for the test: The International English Language Testing System (IELTS). IELTS went live in 1989. Test takers took two non-specialised modules, Listening and Speaking, and two specialised modules, Reading and Writing. Test taker numbers rose by approximately 15% per year and by 1995 there were 43,000 test takers in 210 test centres around

2730-584: The British Council's Marketing Co-ordinator in the US had been referring to the University of Stirling as "The University of Sterling" (sic) and also documenting "tensions" between Scottish Executive civil servants and British Council in India and China over overseas promotion of universities in Scotland where education is a devolved responsibility. The Sunday Herald reported that these turf wars were undermining

2800-512: The British Council's internal rules for overnight stays in London. In 2007, the Russian government accused the British Council of an illegal operation by breaking Russian tax laws and ordered the organisation to close two of its offices. Many believed that the council had become the victim of a diplomatic row between the UK and Russia. In 2018, Russia expelled 23 British diplomats and closed down

2870-562: The British Council. Originally launched in 2001, the show is now broadcast in more than 30 countries around the world, connecting a global audience to a wide range of music the United Kingdom has to offer, covering a variety of genres from grime , indie , soul , dance and more. The show features interviews, guest DJ mixes and exclusive live sessions from some of the UK's most exciting artists. It avoids many mainstream acts, in favour of emerging talent and underground styles. It has an estimated listenership of over four million people. The show

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2940-582: The Chief of Police in Rangoon to the British Ambassador stating their belief that there had been British involvement in the assassination of Aung San and his Cabinet for which one of his political opponents was hanged and that "the go-between" had been a British Council official named in the programme. In August 2011, a journalist from The Irish Times discovered a certificate dated 2007 issued by

3010-573: The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Annual Report, the Foreign Affairs Committee spends an hour each year examining witnesses from the British Council but even this level of scrutiny is undermined by a Commons ruling exempting MPs from the requirement to declare overseas trips paid for by The British Council. Two members of the Public Accounts Committee ( Nigel Griffiths MP and Ian Davidson MP ) were office-bearers in

3080-582: The Reading and Writing tests differ depending on whether the test taker is taking the Academic or General Training versions of the test. Note 3: The 10 minutes transfer time is for the paper-based option of the test. For the computer-delivered option, candidates will be given 2 minutes (at the end of the test) to re-check their answers. The module comprises four sections, with ten questions in each section. It takes around 40 (paper-based) or 32 (computer-delivered) minutes: 30 for testing, plus 10 for transferring

3150-723: The Scottish Executive's key Fresh Talent policy. Some of the activities of the British Council were examined in 2007/2008 by the National Audit Office (NAO). The NAO's report, The British Council: Achieving Impact , concluded: "that the British Council's performance is strong and valued by its customers and stakeholders". It also concluded, however, that its English classes are elitist and have unfair advantages over commercial providers, as well as questioning thousands of unanswered phone calls and e-mails to British Council offices. As part of its examination of

3220-532: The UK lagged Australia , the US , Hong Kong, Canada and France . In its evidence to this committee, the British Council argued that "UK degrees are highly valued by international students for their global recognition. International students adopt an essentially utilitarian view of higher education which is likely to increasingly involve consideration of value for money, including opting for programmes at least partly delivered offshore". As their preferred marketing "model",

3290-713: The UK social learning platform FutureLearn . This was accessed by over 230,000 people. "Peacekeeping English" is a collaboration between the British Council, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Ministry of Defence to improve the English-language skills of military personnel through the Peacekeeping English Project (PEP). PEP is helping train approximately 50,000 military and police service personnel in 28 countries, amongst them Libya , Ethiopia and Georgia . In 2013,

3360-684: The UK. It was expected that nearly 250,000 people will have undertaken activities abroad with the programme. Over 16,000 schools have taken part in an international school partnership or benefited from teacher training through the British Council Connecting Classrooms programmes. The RENKEI network, established in 2012, brings together universities from Japan and the UK. RENKEI stands for "Research and Education Network for Knowledge Economy Initiatives" in English and means "collaboration" in Japanese. As of May 2024,

3430-404: The United Kingdom. The organisation has been called a soft power extension of UK foreign policy, as well as a tool for propaganda . The British Council is governed by a Royal Charter . It is also a public corporation and an executive non-departmental public body (NDPB), sponsored by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office . Its headquarters are in Stratford , London. Its chair

3500-496: The Year and British Council West Africa Arts Programme ~ Creative Entrepreneurs 2018 awards. In 2010, Conservative MP Mark Lancaster , the then Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury , the then Speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin , and other MPs were involved in rows over expenses incurred on undisclosed taxpayer-funded British Council trips. The British Council's then chief executive, Martin Davidson, also faced press criticism for expenses claimed in an apparent breach of

3570-454: The academic and cultural boycott of Israel". Susanna Nicklin, the council's director of literature, said in response: "The British Council is a non-political organisation, and we believe that international cultural exchange makes a powerful contribution to a more peaceful, tolerant and prosperous world. Therefore, the British Council does not support cultural or academic boycotts." The British Council closed its operations in Syria in 2012 due to

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3640-410: The answers to an answer sheet (paper-based) or 2 for re-checking the answers (computer-delivered). Sections 1 and 2 are about everyday, social situations. Sections 3 and 4 are about educational and training situations Each section begins with a short introduction telling the test taker about the situation and the speakers. Then they have some time to look through the questions. The questions are in

3710-557: The average across the four skills ends in .25, it is rounded up to the next half band, and if it ends in .75, it is rounded up to the next whole band. The nine bands are described as follows: English is appropriate, accurate, fluent, and shows complete understanding. For a computer-delivered test, results are released between 3–5 days. For a paper-based test, a Test Report Form will be sent to test takers 13 days after their test. It shows: Test takers receive one copy of their Test Report Form, apart from test takers who are applying to

3780-425: The end of the test of course) to re-check the answers (if they do so computer-delivered). Test takers will lose marks for incorrect spelling and grammar. The Reading paper has three sections and texts totalling approximately 2,150–3,250 words. There will be a variety of question types, such as multiple-choice, short-answer questions, identifying information, identifying writer's views, labelling diagrams, completing

3850-460: The facade of Buckingham Palace. In 2015, the British Council launched fiveFilms4freedom , a free, online, 10-day LGBT film festival with the British Film Institute , supported by the UN Free & Equal campaign. It was the first global online LGBT film festival. The festival runs a 24-hour campaign to ask people to watch a movie and show that love is a human right. In 2016, films were viewed by over 1.5m people in 179 countries. In October 2015,

3920-404: The following features: There are two modules of the IELTS: There is also a separate test offered by the IELTS test partners, called IELTS Life Skills : Note 1: Listening, Reading and Writing are completed in one sitting. The Speaking test may be taken on the same day or up to seven days before or after the other tests. Note 2: All test takers take the same Listening and Speaking tests, while

3990-679: The future of the UK and engaging them with the UK's culture, educational opportunities and its diverse, modern, open society. In 2014–2015, the British Council spent: £489 million developing a wider knowledge of the English language; £238 million encouraging educational cooperation and promoting the advancement of education; £155 million building capacity for social change; £80 million encouraging cultural, scientific and technological cooperation; and £10 million on governance, tax and trading expenses. The British Council offers face-to-face teaching in more than 80 teaching centres in more than 50 countries. Three million candidates took UK examinations with

4060-422: The local authority and a municipal twinning link between Gaza City and the French port of Dunkirk . In Oslo , British Council informs Norwegian callers that "our office is not open to the public and we do not have an enquiry service". Goethe Institute also has a more visible presence in Glasgow than the British Council. There is now, in contrast, only one British Council office left in Germany – and that

4130-496: The members are the universities of Durham , Edinburgh , Leeds , Liverpool , Newcastle and Southampton from the UK and Keio , Kyushu , Ritsumeikan and Tohoku universities from Japan. ACCELERATE was a leadership programme for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the creative arts , run jointly by the British Council and the Australia Council in partnership with Australian state arts agencies, between 2009 and 2016. During that time, 35 people participated in

4200-435: The novel The Russia House by John Le Carré (former consular official David Cornwell) opens with a reference to The British Council. The organisation's "first-ever audio fair for the teaching of the English language and the spread of British culture" is "grinding to its excruciating end" and one of its officials is packing away his stuff when he is approached by an attractive Russian woman to undertake clandestine delivery of

4270-429: The ongoing conflict in the country. The closure was a result of the deteriorating security situation and the inability to ensure the safety of its staff and visitors. In April 2012, the British Council faced a storm of protests over the exclusion of dissident Chinese writers from the London Book Fair 2012 . Critics included English PEN and journalist Nick Cohen writing for The Observer , as well as Alastair Niven ,

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4340-417: The opening years of World War Two . The role of the British Council in Myanmar in 1947 came under scrutiny with the release of classified documents to a BBC investigation by journalist Feargal Keane into the role of dissident British colonial officials in the assassination of the then Burmese independence leader Aung San (father of Aung San Suu Kyi ). The BBC programme quoted from a 1948 document sent by

4410-433: The programme, with many alumni going on to excel in their fields. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II hosted the official launch of the UK-India Year of Culture on 27 February 2017 at Buckingham Palace , with Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley representing Prime Minister Narendra Modi . The British Council worked with the Palace and British-Indian start-up Studio Carrom to project a peacock , India 's national bird, onto

4480-721: The public) is usually held in April and hosted by the British Council in Colombo . The gala at which the winner is announced is held some weeks later at a venue selected by the trust and the event sponsors and is for invitees only. The prize could be awarded for a translated work until 2003, when the trust established the H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize , which is awarded every second year for a work translated into English from Sinhala or Tamil . 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Official website This article about

4550-449: The same order as the information in the recording, so the answer to the first question will be before the answer to the second question, and so on. The first three sections have a break in the middle allowing test takers to look at the remaining questions. Each section is heard only once. At the end of the test, candidates are given 10 minutes to transfer their answers to an answer sheet (if they take their test paper-based) or 2 minutes (at

4620-504: The world. IELTS was revised again in 1995, with three main changes: Further revisions went live in 2001 (revised Speaking Test) and 2005 (new assessment criteria for the Writing test). IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training are designed to cover the full range of abilities from non-user or middle user to expert user. The Academic version is for test takers who want to study at the tertiary level in an English-speaking country or seek professional registration. The General Training version

4690-420: Was expelled. In April 2008, the British Council was told to ensure all portable media was encrypted after losing staff data and wrongly saying the disc was encrypted. Following the accusations made against the British Council in Russia (see above) Trevor Royle, the diplomatic editor of The Sunday Herald quoted a "British diplomatic source" saying: "There is a widespread assumption that The British Council

4760-435: Was part of the small number of PAC members who approved this report on the British Council despite not having been recorded as being present during the evidence session – in June 2008 – where the British Council's chief executive was cross-examined. Mr Griffiths had earlier travelled to Russia and spoke favourably of British Council activities there in January 1998 around the time that their man in St Petersburg (Stephen Kinnock)

4830-407: Was then known, was launched in 1980 by Cambridge English Language Assessment (then known as "UCLES") and the British Council . It had an innovative format, which reflected changes in language learning and teaching, including the growth in 'communicative' language learning and 'English for specific purposes'. Test tasks were intended to reflect the use of English language in the 'real world'. During

4900-587: Was £973 million principally made up of £154.9 million grant-in-aid received from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office; £637 million income from fees and teaching and examinations services; and £164 million from contracts. The British Council works in more than 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the UK and the English language; encouraging cultural, scientific, technological and educational understanding and cooperation; changing people's lives through access to UK education, skills, qualifications, culture and society; and attracting people who matter to

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