Opportunity
The British Council is delighted to announce the opening of the bidding for “GREAT Scholarships – East Asia 2019” to all UK higher education institutions.
This is the second year that the British Council is running the GREAT scholarships campaign in China and the first year of this campaign in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. In 2017/18 the China campaign reached an online audience of 4.5 million through a wide range of digital channels and attracted 164,000 unique visitors to its landing page within its four-month promotion period.
The GREAT Scholarships scheme will be jointly funded by the UK government’s GREAT Britain Campaign, the British Council and participating UK higher education institutions, targeting prospective students from China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, who will enroll into UK higher education institutions in the autumn of 2019.
Aims:
- significantly increase the number of applications submitted by students from China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand for UK university courses in 2019
- enhance the reputation of and promote high-quality provisions of the UK’s higher education sector to targeted audience in East Asia
- reinforce the message that the UK continues to welcome the brightest and best international students
The GREAT Scholarships will be managed separately by the British Council teams in each individual country. UK institutions may participate in the campaigns by working with one or more selected countries. Minimum financial contribution to each of the country-level scholarship scheme is £10,000.
The criteria for institutions to participate in the GREAT Scholarships campaigns in individual countries are different and have been summarised as below:
Country | Contribution by GREAT | Contribution by individual UK institutions | Value of each scholarship | Eligible level of courses | Eligible subjects |
China | £10,000 | No less than £10,000 | No less than £10,000 | Postgraduate Taught and Research | All subjects |
Indonesia | £10,000 | No less than £10,000 | No less than £10,000 | Undergraduate | All subjects |
Malaysia | £10,000 | No less than £10,000 | No less than £10,000 | Postgraduate Taught | All subjects |
Thailand | £10,000 | No less than £10,000 | No less than £10,000 | Postgraduate Taught | Priority will be given to key subjects outlined by “Thailand 4.0” – the Thai government’s sector-specific industrial policy:
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Benefits for UK Institutions
Joining this initiative will provide a great opportunity for UK higher education institutions to raise their profiles and increase exposure in the EA region. All scholarships that are funded under this initiative will be named as “GREAT– [X University] Scholarship – [Country Name] 2019” and will be promoted in integrated marketing campaigns running in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand for four months from October 2018 to January 2019.
The campaign will cover all key online and offline marketing activities and events that the British Council plans for these markets in the autumn of 2018, which include the Study UK exhibitions and showcase, education agent workshops and regional digital campaigns. The British Council will work with participating universities and use both digital and print media channels to ensure all scholarship opportunities are effectively promoted to the target students.
Participation criteria
- All participating institutions must be listed on the UK Home Office Register of Tier 4 Sponsors (approved Education Providers) and QAA/OFSTED/ESTYN inspected and approved.
- Minimum contribution from each participating institution to each of the country-level scholarship schemes is £10,000.
- Contribution from the GREAT Britain Campaign and the British Council is a total of £10,000 per institution for each country-level scholarship scheme.
- Minimum value of each GREAT scholarship is £10,000.
- Participating institutions can offer as many scholarships as they want and individual institutions will manage their scholarship schemes independently.
- UK institutions will need to demonstrate that their contribution made for the GREAT Scholarships – East Asia 2019 is not from any of their existing scholarship schemes.
- Scholarships can only be awarded to passport holders of the specific country that the GREAT Scholarships campaign is based in.
- In China, scholarships will be offered at postgraduate level, covering both postgraduate taught and research programmes.
- In Indonesia, scholarships will be offered at undergraduate level only.
- In Malaysia and Thailand, scholarships will be offered to postgraduate taught students only,
- In China, Indonesia and Malaysia, the scholarships can be offered to students in all subjects.
- For the scholarships scheme in Thailand, key subjects outlined by the Thai government’s “Thailand 4.0” strategy will be prioritised. These subjects are: Robotics, Aviation and Logistics, Healthcare, Bio-fuels & Bio-chemicals, and Digital.
- If a course/programme lasts longer than one year, the scholarships will be offered for the first year of study only.
- All participating institutions are expected to further promote the scholarship opportunities through their own channels.
The decision on allocation of funding will be made by the British Council after bids are collected from UK institutions. Consideration will be given to locations of institutions to ensure representation across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Priority will be given to institutions that can contribute comparatively large amounts of funding and/or have good track records of working with the British Council on previous scholarship schemes.
The funding contributed by the GREAT Britain Campaign and the British Council will be issued as grant to participating UK institutions by the British Council teams in individual countries separately. All payment will be made before 31 March 2019.
Management of the scholarships
- Management of the scholarships, including design and timeline of the scheme; shortlisting and interviews of applicants, selection of scholars, and issuance of scholarships, will be managed by individual participating UK institutions.
- Each participating institution will need to provide a contact point to deal with student enquiries and manage logistics of the scholarship scheme. Contact details of this person will be publicised on the scholarships webpages hosted on both the British Council’s and the UK institution’s websites.
- Participating institutions will be expected to liaise with the winning scholarships to seek their consent to be contacted by the British Council for programme reporting and evaluation after issuance of the scholarships.
How to participate
UK institutions interested in this opportunity are requested to complete the bidding form at the bottom of this page and send it to the relevant British Council in-country contact points outlined on the bidding form by 31 August 2018 (17.00 BST).
Timeline
Date | Action |
31 August 2018 | Deadline for submission of bids |
7 September 2018 | The British Council to inform bidding institutions of results of bids |
September 2018 | Institutions to provide confirmed scholarship details and any other promotional content |
September – early October 2018 | Production of campaign promotional materials and landing pages |
October 2018 | Launch of the GREAT Scholarships marketing campaigns in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
The marketing campaigns in all four markets will run until 31 January 2019. |
October - November 2018 | Agreements signed between the British Council and participating institutions |
December 2018 – February 2019 | GREAT fund issued by the British Council individual country offices to participating institutions on receipt of relevant financial documents (i.e. bank details, invoices, etc.) |
October 2019 | Scholarships issued to winning scholars for the 2019 autumn intake by participating UK institutions; Names and courses of the scholars sent across to the British Council for project reporting purpose |
November 2019 | Participating institutions to liaise with winning scholarships to seek their consents to be contacted by the British Council for evaluation and impact assessment of the Scholarship programme. |