Dear colleagues,

The health and safety of our clients, visitors, students, partners and staff is our top priority.

As a global organisation, International Education Services engages annually with an audience of 515,000 in more than 100 countries through our international student recruitment activities.

International Education Services, like most of the British Council, has been significantly affected with recent exhibitions being cancelled, including events in Singapore, Italy, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Cyprus and Greece as well as inward visits from the USA and Kazakhstan.

Given the prevailing circumstances, we have now taken the decision to cancel the remainder of our activities requiring UK or international travel until July 2020, including international fairs, exhibitions and both inbound and outbound UK visits. Activities requiring international travel planned from September 2020 onwards will be temporarily 'closed for recruitment' but we are happy to take expressions of interest on any of our future activities by contacting us. We will review the situation in June when we will update our International Education Services website with the most current information. 

We are very aware that you and your institution’s communities are undergoing similar challenging experiences and we are here to provide support as best we can. We remain committed to ensuring individuals can still connect to the UK education sector through International Education Services. In the coming weeks we will focus on supporting you by establishing a series of webinars to determine how best we can work with you to assist during this period. Work continues via our digital marketing channels and virtual fairs and exhibitions remain open. I encourage you to keep in contact with our in-country teams and to engage with British Council specialists in our insights/consultancy and training and learning teams. 

As a global business with a global network, our in-country teams remain ready to assist.  Our teams are currently monitoring market sentiments and are available to advise on appropriate messaging and communications to different audiences. We are keen to support your continued international student recruitment engagement and we are actively exploring alternative ways to profile institutions and to help connect with prospective students and their families. 

Despite the cancellation of activities requiring travel, we are committed and determined to bring together dedicated UK education professionals with prospective international students and are stepping up on our digital offers to ensure your continuous presence in all key markets. Please do not hesitate to contact us with thoughts on how International Education Services would be the greatest value to you at this time.

We look forward to keeping you updated over the coming weeks and welcome, as always, your engagement with us. Please continue to check our website for future announcements.

Further information is available on the following links:

FCO travel advice

Public Health England guidance

Please continue to check the FCO/Embassy guidance overseas

With best regards,

Brenda McMahon
Director, International Education Services
British Council