‘I am extremely grateful to the British Council for the scholarship and for enabling me to perform very complex research. Good knowledge of English proved invaluable.’
Wojciech Majewski, scholarship recipient and Professor of Technical Sciences. He travelled to the UK from Gdansk, Poland in 1962.
© National Portrait Gallery
1960s
‘I am extremely grateful to the British Council for the scholarship and for enabling me to perform very complex research. Good knowledge of English proved invaluable.’
Wojciech Majewski, scholarship recipient and Professor of Technical Sciences. He travelled to the UK from Gdansk, Poland in 1962.
© National Portrait Gallery
1960
Olivia Manning publishes the first of the Fortunes of War trilogy.
The six novels tell the story of Harriet and Guy Pringle and are largely based on the experiences of Olivia Manning and her husband Reginald Smith, an English teacher for the British Council during the Second World War.
1961
The Berlin Wall does not stop our commitment to culture as we take the UK National Youth Theatre’s production of Julius Caesar to the Berlin theatre festival.
1961
To build greater co-operation between the UK and other countries, we expand our work in education and student training in Africa and Asia.
Funded by the UK government’s Department for Technical Co-operation (later known as the Overseas Development Administration), this work includes English teaching and exchange visits for researchers and academics.
1962
Our first collaboration with the BBC is an English teaching TV programme, Walter and Connie.
We continue to work with the BBC on joint programmes, including World Questions.
Watch a clip from Dining Out with Walter and Connie
1963
We work with the Voluntary Service Overseas, managing volunteers in countries around the world.
1965
We launch the first English proficiency test for students coming to study in the UK.
This test is the forerunner of IELTS, which is now taken by millions of people every year and accepted by more than 12,000 universities, schools, employers and immigration bodies.
Today we also offer IELTS online and remote invigilation, opening up opportunities for even more test takers.
1967
We are co-founders of the Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language, later to become IATEFL.
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