The Alumni Awards were developed by the British Council and UK universities and were launched by the British Council in September 2014 in three countries. In 2016 the awards took place in ten countries and received more than 1000 applications. The awards have been attended by VIPs and royalty including HRH Duke of Cambridge who presented the Alumni Awards in China in 2015.

In 2017 the Alumni Awards is taking place in 14 locations and UK alumni in every continent will be celebrated at prestigious award ceremonies in Egypt, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey and the USA. Alumni Award winners and finalists are leaders in their fields: entrepreneurs, professionals, and social change makers, all of whom have used their UK education to bring about positive change to their communities, industries and countries. Past award winners include Mitch Robinson, an international law specialist at the US Department of Defence who works on human rights cases at Guantanamo Bay; and Yifan Ling, one of China’s best manga comic book artists, whose latest works have received over 100 million views online.

The British Council Malaysia launched its inaugural Alumni Awards 2017 on 10 August 2016 in the presence of H.E. Vicki Treadell CMG, MVO British High Commissioner to Malaysia and Sarah Deverall Country Director British Council Malaysia. The event also marks the beginning of a series of workshops that the British Council will be having as a lead up to the Alumni Awards 2017. These free workshops are aimed at young professionals who graduated from the UK higher education institutions from 2001 with the aim of supporting their continued professional development and enhancing their employability.

Legendary shoe designer and UK alumnus Professor Jimmy Choo, OBE, is Global Ambassador and Malaysian Ambassador of the Alumni Awards. He said “I’m delighted to support the Alumni Awards 2017 as Global Ambassador. Studying in the UK was an experience that changed my life and contributed to my success today. It is an honour to be supporting today’s recent outstanding UK university alumni by sharing their success stories and positive impact on the world."

The awards showcase and promote the impact and value of a UK higher education. UK universities can leverage on this to recruit students, building on the stories a diverse range of inspirational alumni who have gone on to achieve global success in many disciplines, including Oscar-winning directors, Olympic gold-medalists, Nobel Prize-winners and world leaders.

If your university has an alumnus who has gone on to achieve exceptional success, get ready to encourage them to apply or nominate them from 7 September 2016. Nominations close 16 October; applications on 31 October 2016. For more details regarding the Awards please visit https://www.britishcouncil.org/education-uk-awards or contact Nadiahtul.adnan@britishcouncil.org.my.