Our education work at the new premises launch and 40th year anniversary celebration of British Council

The British Council in the Philippines launched on 15 May 2018 new premises as part of the celebration of 40 years of existence in the Philippines. The momentous event, celebrated with our key partners, grantees and UK alumni, was graced by Sir Simon McDonald, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO); Daniel Pruce, British Ambassador to the Philippines; Nora Terrado, Undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry and British Council EA Regional Director Mark Walker.

Head of Education, Lotus Postrado and Institutional Links grantees from UST stand next to the Education exhibit at the British Council office launch. ©
British Council

The launch showcased the British Council’s work in Education, Arts, Society, Exams and English. Particularly for our Education work, a mounted digital exhibit highlighted our major projects—Transnational Education, Newton Agham Programme and the StudyUK – and afforded us the chance to introduce the range of our activities to other non-Education partners. StudyUK, our programme for the promotion of UK as study destination, for instance is an area of work less known to partners, because of its mostly student-focussed nature. Babyruth Villarama, a filmmaker and this year’s StudyUK Alumni Awards recipient spoke during the launch, attributing her filmmaking success with her UK training.

Instrumental to the success of our Education work, key partners from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), higher education institutions, UK alumni association and education agents joined the celebration.

In his remarks, Sir Simon McDonald commented on the success of the transnational education programme in the Philippines “One of the areas the [British] Council has worked most effectively in the Philippines recently is partnering universities. Going overseas for university qualification is very expensive, and so if they can get validation from a British university for a Filipino course, this is a good thing for both parties. And this in recent years has been a growth area between the United Kingdom and the Philippines.