The British Council Education and Inclusive Communities response to Covid-19

June 2020 onwards

1. UK Vietnam Higher Education Partnership dissemination webinar series: Sustaining UK Vietnam higher education partnerships in response to the “new normal”

• to encourage continuous strategic engagement and collaboration between Higher Education Institutions in the UK and Vietnam during and post Covid-19
• to act a catalyst for innovation in international education, driving development in UK Vietnam Higher Education partnership

Webinar #1: University Industry Links: 09.00–10.00 (BST), i.e. 15.00–16.00 (Vietnam time), Thursday 11 June 2020
Webinar #2: Quality Assurance and TNE (July, date to be confirmed)
Webinar #3: University Leadership and Governance (July, date to be confirmed)

2. ThinkTNE webinar series is British Council East Asia’s flagship dialogue series focused on quality and excellence in transnational education. It comprises education policy events, covering a wide range of TNE topics, including quality assurance, student experience, academic and talent development, and employer engagement. Leading representatives from education sectors in the UK and East Asia are invited to discuss top priorities and challenges in the development and delivery of TNE. Three webinars in June will cover ‘Student TNE experience’, ‘Academic engagement,’ and ‘Strategic development and the future of TNE’. See details at the Download section below.

3. Going Global: the Social Distancing Edition, in the absence of a Going Global conference this year, offering a digital alternative so that leaders and future leaders can continue the conversation around internationalising higher education. Together we will explore this year's theme: Global learners, global innovation. You are all invited to join Live Events about Global learners and Universities of the Future, Global learning in a post-COVID world, and more.

July onwards

1. Monthly Higher Education Professional webinar series will be organised in collaboration with UK–VN HE Network. This webinar series will provide an excellent opportunity for UK and Vietnamese higher education institutions to stay connected and share knowledge and expertise in addressing key challenges of the higher education agenda post Covid-19, as well as identify priorities of the two countries in international partnership development. Webinar topics include, amongst other topics:

• higher education autonomy and impact on university governance
• “new normal” of teaching and learning
• graduate employability
• quality research and community engagement

2. Launch of the ‘UK-Vietnam Higher Education Partnership (UK–VN HEP) – case studies and learnings’ e-book that will include:

• Evaluations to review and better understand the impact of the Higher Education Partnerships formed as part of British Council initiatives across East Asia
• Collections of case studies and project outcomes from the UK–Vietnam Higher Education Partnership (UK–VN HEP) during 2018-2020
• Summaries of how the partnerships have strengthened existing links, contributing to the institutions’ strategy, and bringing success, values and mutual benefits to both UK and Vietnamese higher education institutions, businesses and related organisations.

June 2020 onwards

1. Regional Active Citizens Social Enterprise facilitators online networking event (2 June): A network of ACSE lecturers in East Asia was built during the refreshing regional training for facilitators in Hanoi in November 2019. The online networking meeting on June is to discuss on ACSE cascade experience and further collaboration between lecturers and universities in Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Korea.

2. Series of webinar for lecturers in the Active Citizens Social Enterprise network is part of a British Council initiative, in collaboration with MOET programme 1665, to support and develop students’ entrepreneurship in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is expected to create an innovative approach for delivering the Active Citizens Social Enterprise training toolkit, which was originally offline. University lecturers will have an excellent opportunity to share their knowledge and strengthen their network.

3. Launch of Social Innovation and Social Enterprise Research and Teaching Landscape country reports: The mapping studies of social innovation and social enterprise in higher education landscapes in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea and Vietnam in 2019–2020 are Baseline Surveys which aim to outline and understand the social innovation and entrepreneurship research and teaching landscape at higher education institutions in those countries.

4. Active Citizens Training of Trainers (ACSE ToT) offline courses, following ten successful ACSE ToT courses, will be organised at National Economics University, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Hai Phong University, and Nha Trang University. The TOT courses aim to develop a social innovation mindset and provide social entrepreneurship skills for lecturers, through the Active Citizens methodology. The lecturers will become facilitators who are able to mainstream social entrepreneurship into their university programmes and activities.

5. Global Active Citizens Refreshing Training for facilitators on the new blended learning offer of Active Citizens programme (June): The British Council has been working with master facilitators to add an annex to the current Active Citizen toolkit for facilitators worldwide. The annex is to guide blended learning offer of Active Citizens programme with online activities. The global refreshing training is the opportunity to introduce the annex and receive feedback from worldwide facilitators.

Our work with teachers, teacher educators and policymakers

Our English for Education Systems (EES) work is designed to ensure more widespread and better knowledge of English through teaching, learning and assessment, to create global opportunity, empowerment and connections between local and UK Sector leaders.

In Vietnam, we work with the Ministry of Education and Training and English language teachng (ELT) sector to enhance the national education system that supports high quality teacher education, teaching, learning and assessment of English. We do this by sharing our expertise, research and insight and by connecting Vietnam with the UK ELT and EdTech sectors.

April onwards

1. Research and insight

• Global Survey on English language teacher needs during the Covid-19 crisis. Many teachers and teacher educators now find themselves working online and remotely because of the COVID19 crisis. The British Council is committed to helping teachers and teacher educators with this different way of working. A Global Survey on English language teacher needs during the Covid-19 crisis has been conducted in many countries since April which will help us to understand what teachers and teacher educators need and help shape our response.

• Global Research - Landscape review. In conjunction with a parallel survey of teacher and teacher educator needs global research is currently underway to support British Council's leading role in English for Education Systems through a published report providing external partners and organisations with global insight into the situation with regard to ELT. The research findings will inform British Council’s continuing response in supporting teachers/ teacher educators and Ministries of Education in the future.

2. Series of weekly and monthly Webinars and Facebook live events for English teachers and teacher educators

The British Council is committed to supporting the use of technology for the continuation of education in a crisis. As many teachers find themselves in an unfamiliar situation of having to teach their classes online, with little or no experience, the British Council TeachingEnglish website is committed to providing as much support as possible to help teachers and teacher educators navigate their way through the world of online teaching.

Our webinars and recorded talks are from experts in the field of English Language Teaching, and are held monthly and are completely free. Certificates are available for all attendees.

We are working closely with on-going British Council delivered Newton projects' partners to ensure that they receive full support to maintain and take the projects forward. This includes:

1. Research Environment Links

• The 5th International Conference on Research in Intelligent and Computing in Engineering (3–4 June): Smart Manufacturing which is the core idea of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) has gained increasing attention worldwide. Internet of Thing (IoT), Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligent (AI), Cloud Computing, Digital Twin, Cyber-physical System, etc. have motivated the development of Smart Manufacturing. The Newton Fund project between Le Quy Don Technical University and the University of Greenwich on Smart manufacturing in 4.0 Industry has been chaired the first session at the 5th Research in Intelligent and Computing in Engineering (RICE) 2020 conference. The event has been adapted to deliver online in response to Covid-19 pandemic gathering relevant high profiled professors and researchers. Watch the session.