The British Council
The British Council

Author: Great Britain. National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 9780102954173

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The British Council has been flexible in moving its attention and resources to match new UK priorities, particularly in the Islamic World and the Far East. It continues to implement numerous and extensive internal changes aimed at increasing its effectiveness and efficiency, though delivery of projects and change has been uneven across its global network. The Council's approach to measuring its performance is well developed. Its scorecard shows positive results across most aspects of activity, including audience sizes, customer satisfaction scores, and the perceptions of stakeholders and partners.The Council increasingly depends on contributions from external partners and commercial sponsors, to expand its activities and impacts. This will mean reversing the downward trend in sponsorship and other contributions of the last six years. The Council has recognised the importance of good customer service, but it is not yet meeting the standards it sets for itself across the whole network. It also needs to implement a customer database to enable it to track customer contacts and better understand its audiences.The British Council's £181 million English language teaching and examinations business has a strong reputation and more than covers its costs. The teaching operation also supports UK public diplomacy, notably by helping overseas governments expand the teaching of English in their schools and colleges.But the teaching business has a high cost base, charges premium prices, and has limited reach outside overseas capital cities. Although there has been an increase in the numbers of students taught, the network of teaching centres has contracted in recent years. To continue to grow the business, the Council will need to put into action its ideas about alternative lower-cost ways to deliver good quality teaching.

Proceedings of IAC 2019 in Vienna
Proceedings of IAC 2019 in Vienna

Author: Group of Authors

Publisher: Czech Institute of Academic Education

Published: 2019-07-04

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 8088203112

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Scientific articles form: International Academic Conference on Teaching, Learning and E-learning International Academic Conference on Management, Economics and Marketing International Academic Conference on Engineering, Transport, IT and AI

The work of the British Council 2008-09
The work of the British Council 2008-09

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2010-02-04

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13: 9780215543813

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The British Council is the UK's international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. Its purpose is to "build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people worldwide." As well as education, it runs programmes in the arts, science, sport, governance and English language in 110 countries and territories worldwide. 2009 marked the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Council. It receives Grant-in-Aid from the FCO for its public diplomacy activity: £209 million 2008-09, a 6% increase from 2007-08. The Committee concludes that the change in extent of data provided and the presentation of that data in the British Council's 2008-09 annual report makes it more difficult to track and evaluate the Council's performance over a period of years. In future the annual report should include fuller performance data, including corporate performance scores and reach, to facilitate year-on-year analysis. The recent decline in some of the scores achieved in relation to quality of service, particularly in that relating to engagement with decision makers and senior influencers, gives cause for concern. The Committee welcomes the Council's efforts to re-establish itself in Iran and Zimbabwe, its increased focus on China, and its progress in implementing NAO suggested administrative reforms (HC 625, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780102954173). 2009-10 will be a difficult year for the British Council and further cuts in staff and services may be unavoidable. In these circumstances it is important that the Council concentrates its activities on its core business and key objectives.

Department for International Development annual report & resource accounts 2009 - 10
Department for International Development annual report & resource accounts 2009 - 10

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2011-02-03

Total Pages: 92

ISBN-13: 9780215556240

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In the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review the Coalition Government announced its decision to achieve the internationally agreed target of providing 0.7 percent of Gross National Income as ODA from 2013. This will involve spending an additional 2.5 billion pounds in 2013-14 to make the total DFID budget 11.3 billion pounds in that year. There will be a large increase in spending on fragile and conflict affected states and it will be difficult to ensure that every pound is well spent in such war-torn environments. When scrutinising DFID's accounts the MPs were also surprised to discover that the Pope's visit was paid for in part by money supposed to be for overseas development aid (ODA). The Committee expects a response from the Government as to what the £1.85 million, transferred to the Foreign Office for the papal visit, was spent on and an explanation as to how this was ODA compliant. The Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) announced reductions in DFID's running costs to 2% of the total budget. If achieved, this would make DFID the most cost-efficient development organisation in the world.This is to be achieved by a large reduction in back office administration costs (which excludes front-line staff) of £34 million over the CSR period. The International Development Committee supports the proposals to make savings in back office staff, but the MPs are warning that Ministers must ensure that reduced administration budgets do not affect the ability to deliver aid programmes on the ground. While declining as a share of total costs, running costs will increase in real terms over the next four years because the total budget will rise so much.

Departmental annual report 2010-11
Departmental annual report 2010-11

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-04-13

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13: 9780215043726

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Despite the impressive performance of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in representing the UK's interests across the globe with what is, in Governmental terms, a particularly small budget, the Foreign Affairs Committee believes that the FCO is under-funded. This situation has been exacerbated by the Spending Review 2010 and the lack of detail provided by the FCO and the BBC World Service as to exactly how the spending reductions target will be met is disappointing. There are concerns about the steps taken by the FCO to adjust to its reduced budget: reductions in the deployment of UK-based staff overseas and the optimistic planned programme of property sales will have a detrimental impact on the ability of the UK to protect its interests overseas. The establishment of the European External Action Service (EEAS) will place a further strain on the FCO's resources. The Committee welcomes the appointment of Lord Williams of Baglan to the post of "International Trustee" with responsibility for the BBC World Service, but reiterates its belief that a formal concordat governing the World Service's budget and output should be drawn up setting out the World Service's independence from budgetary pressures elsewhere in the BBC. The budget cuts faced by the British Council will lead to the Council becoming a substantially different organisation by the end of the Spending Review period. The greater emphasis that the British Council will place on commercial activity risks a diminution of the UK's influence and soft power.

Public Diplomacy
Public Diplomacy

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2006-04-07

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 9780215028327

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The term 'public diplomacy' relates to activities designed to promote the image and interests of the UK overseas in support of the Government's objectives. The BBC World Service and the British Council are the main government-funded bodies involved in public diplomacy activity, and in 2004-05, they received £225 million and £172 million of grant-in-aid respectively. The Committee's report examines the work of these two organisations, in light of the recommendations of the review by Lord Carter of Cole (more details available at http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPageandc=Pageandcid=1007029395249) on the effectiveness of the Government's public diplomacy work, published in December 2005. The report makes 31 conclusions and recommendations, including the need for the Foreign Office to support an increase in the grant-in-aid funding for the BBC World Service so that it can introduce other television services such as the Arabic television news service; and that although it is appropriate for a Foreign Office minister to chair the new Public Diplomacy Strategy and Performance Management Board to ensure parliamentary accountability, this must not be allowed to compromise the editorial independence of the BBC World Service or the operational independence of the British Council.

Proceedings of MAC-ETeL 2016
Proceedings of MAC-ETeL 2016

Author: group of authors

Publisher: MAC Prague consulting

Published: 2016-08-04

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 808808508X

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Multidisciplinary Academic Conference on Education, Teaching and E-learning, Czech Republic, Prague (MAC-ETeL 2016)

International Cultural Relations
International Cultural Relations

Author: J. M. Mitchell

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-10-14

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1317377567

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This book, originally published in 1986, analyses and describes the significance of cultural relations in international affairs. It traces the beginnings of cultural relations in the 19th century and their evolution. Consideration is given to the nature and organization of global ‘cultural diplomacy’, with a particular focus on France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the USA. This book will be of interest to students in international affairs and modern history, but also to those working in government departments and agencies.

Routledge Library Editions: International Relations
Routledge Library Editions: International Relations

Author: Various

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-08-05

Total Pages: 2892

ISBN-13: 1317359631

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The 10 volumes in this set, originally published between 1959 and 1986, analyze the process of radical foreign policy change, explore Marxist-Leninist models of international relations, describe the significance of cultural relations in international affairs, highlight the changing nature of political communities and changing patterns of government and examine the interaction between the realms of ethics and international relations.

Cultural Globalization and Music
Cultural Globalization and Music

Author: Nadia Kiwan

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2011-04-04

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 0230305385

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This book is about South-North, North-South relations between Africa and Europe, presenting the personal narratives of musicians in different locations across Africa and Europe, and those of the people who constitute their networks within the wider artistic, cultural, and civil society milieus of globalizing societies.