IELTS Rewards is an event that aims to give an overview of the current IELTS market landscape and explore how the British Council and its stakeholders can collaboratively work together to further establish IELTS in Higher Education in Bangladesh. Three such events were held in three of the five British Council’s IELTS testing cities, namely Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet between 16 January 2018 and 25 January 2018.
The key highlight of these events was British Council IELTS Scholarships 2018, which was launched on 18 December 2017. Amongst attendees were university personnel, educators, and representatives from over a hundred IELTS Registration Centres (IRC) and 80 English Medium Instructed (EMI) schools across Bangladesh, as well as University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman, Prof. Abdul Mannan, Honourable Mayor of Chittagong City Corporation, Abu Jahed Mohammed Nasir Uddin and Divisional Commissioner, Dr Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum.
The event kicked off with a presentation on IELTS global updates by the British Council’s Director-Examinations Bangladesh, Sebastian Pearce. He addressed how the test has been performing on a global scale and where Bangladesh stands in comparison to other countries. This was followed by a speech by Heather Forbes, Regional Exams Director, British Council, where she highlighted the significance of IELTS in higher education across the world and how the test can positively contribute to higher education in Bangladesh.
Following on, Imran Saifur, an English Language professional and teacher at the British Council Teaching Centre, gave the audience further insight into how the skills assessed through IELTS are required at various stages of an individual’s academic career, and how this credible and incorporable assessment could aid institutions across Bangladesh in terms of quality assessment of their future graduates.
The final session of the event comprised a presentation of this year’s British Council IELTS Scholarships offerings. This year, for the first time the British Council has also made this scholarship available to students who are planning to pursue their higher education in Bangladesh. We are offering three scholarships worth BDT 300,000 each to study abroad and four scholarships worth BDT 150,000 each to study in-country. The aim of this scholarship is to ‘promote access to higher education’, thus building the foundation for a more stable and economically prosperous Bangladesh.
This campaign is now live and applications close on 31 March 2018.