Last updated on 01 December 2023
1. About these Terms
1.1. Advantage is the British Council’s trusted exams loyalty programme for schools, language centres and academies, tuition providers, and other education institutions and organisations that register candidates to take Cambridge English Qualifications at participating British Council authorised exam centres.
1.2. These Terms define the rules, scope and conditions of participation in “Advantage”. Please read these Terms carefully before you complete the local application form to join Advantage. By clicking “I agree to the terms and conditions” before applying to become a member, you are confirming your understanding and acceptance of these Terms and the local membership criteria.
1.3 In some countries there may be some British Council services which are subject to additional and/or different terms and conditions. Where this is the case, you will be directed to those terms and conditions.
2. General Terms
2.1. Advantage is fully owned and operated by the British Council.
2.2. Advantage recognises schools, language centres and academies, tuition providers, and other educational organisations and institutions that register candidates through a group registration for one or more of the range of exams known as Cambridge English Qualifications with a participating British Council authorised exam centre.
2.3. Advantage participating British Council authorised exam centres are in the following countries where we deliver Cambridge English Qualifications: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Hungary, India, Lebanon, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, the Netherlands, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates.
2.4. Advantage members will have access to British Council’s exams services offer and benefits according to our Starter, Standard, Premium or Premium Plus membership levels.
2.5. Qualification for a membership level is defined by the participating British Council authorised exam centres and will depend on the number of candidates for Cambridge English Qualifications registered during the previous academic year (September to August). Please contact your local British Council authorised exam centre for further details.
3. Rules for participation
3.1. Advantage membership is open to schools, language centres and academies, tuition providers, and other educational organisations and institutions that registered candidates for Cambridge English Qualifications at a participating British Council authorised exam centre during the previous academic year (September to August).
3.2. Advantage membership is open to any new schools, language centres and academies, tuition providers, and other education institutions and organisations who would like to become an Advantage member at the beginning of an academic year or at any other point during the academic year.
3.3. Advantage membership is activated when the Advantage online application form is completed, the applicant clicks to agree to these Terms and the local British Council authorised exam centre validates the application.
3.4. Advantage members will qualify for a membership level: Starter, Standard, Premium or Premium Plus, depending on the number of registrations made each academic year (September-August).
3.5. The participating British Council authorised exams centre will contact you at the beginning of each academic year with your membership level and to organise your membership benefits.
3.6. New Advantage members will be offered a membership level according to the number of registrations you first register through a group registration with us or our Starter membership level which is designed to help members who are getting started.
3.7. Your Advantage membership is automatically extended and is valid until it is deactivated or cancelled by the participating British Council authorised exam centre. Starter memberships may be reviewed by the participating British Council authorised exam centre and may be deactivated after eighteen months and other membership levels at twelve months if no registrations are made in that period.
3.8. The benefits are personal to eligible Advantage members and cannot be transferred to any third party. Benefits cannot be exchanged for money or any other goods or services.
3.9. The British Council accepts no responsibility for failure to notify participants or failure to deliver the benefits where such failure results from the provision of inaccurate contact details by the participants or from the acts or omissions of any third party (including, without limitation, any internet or postal service provider) and shall have no liability to any participant if it is prevented from or delayed in delivering any aspect of the benefits by acts, events, omissions or accidents beyond its reasonable control.
3.10. The British Council does not offer any insurance in connection with the benefits. Each participant may arrange their own insurance in respect of the benefit, if applicable.
3.11. Advantage members have the right to terminate their membership at any time. This should be done in writing to the local British Council authorised exam centre. Membership will cease from the moment written notification requesting this is received.
3.12. From the moment Advantage membership is terminated, all entitlement to Advantage exams services and benefits will cease. Advantage members are obliged to remove the Advantage member badge and return the Advantage member certificate, and if applicable the member plaque, to the local British Council authorised exam centre and refrain from promoting Advantage membership thereafter.
3.13. Advantage membership will not be extended to the following academic year in the event a member has not registered any candidates for Cambridge English Qualifications in the past two years.
4. Member Benefits
4.1. Advantage offers members a world of opportunity. By working with the British Council members can enjoy flexible exam services and personalised account support, exclusive financial incentives and promotions, marketing materials, an enhanced education experience and many more offers.
4.2. The exact Advantage benefits you are entitled to as a member may depend on your membership level and the availability at participating British Council authorised exam centres. The benefits in each membership level include all the benefits in the previous membership level.
4.3. Advantage benefits not used by the end of the academic year will expire and cannot be carried forward to the following year.
4.4. In addition, participating British Council authorised exam centres may offer a few extra Advantage benefits to further support you. Please contact your local exam centre for more details.
5. Collaboration with Cambridge English
5.1. About the collaboration
5.1.1. British Council’s Advantage exams loyalty programme is delivered in collaboration with Cambridge English. Cambridge and British Council collaborate in Advantage to support learners and teachers preparing for Cambridge English Qualifications by offering a number of exclusive benefits.
5.2. Benefits provided by Cambridge
5.2.1. The benefits provided to Advantage members by Cambridge consist of self-study materials and online development courses for teachers of English.
- An exclusive discount on exam self-study materials at local Cambridge booksellers.
- Four complimentary 2-hour Teacher Development Online courses by Cambridge English, available on the Cambridge One platform to choose from the available 2-hour Teacher Development online courses for Standard members, an additional four courses for Premium members (8 courses in total) and up to an additional four courses (12 courses in total) for Premium Plus members.
5.2.2. The benefits are available to active Advantage members at participating British Council authorised exam centres.
5.2.3. The exact benefits or number of benefits may differ at participating British Council authorised exam centres.
5.2.4. Participating British Council authorised exam centres for the benefits provided by Cambridge are in the following countries: Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece, Poland, Serbia, Montenegro, Hungary, Tunisia, Egypt, Qatar, UAE, Lebanon, Morocco, and Georgia.
5.2.5. Territory and eligibility
5.2.5.1. The benefits provided by Cambridge are open to teachers aged 18 years and over at active Advantage member institutions at participating British Council authorised exam centres.
5.2.5.2. The availability of each of the benefits is limited and specific to each participating British Council exam centre and will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis during the Dates in 5.4 in accordance with these Terms.
5.2.5.3. Access to the benefits is free of charge although participants are responsible for their own costs of connecting to the Internet.
5.2.6. Dates
5.2.6.1. The opening date is at the start of each academic year from 01 September and the closing date is 31 August at the end of each academic year.
5.2.6.2. Eligible Advantage members will be able to request online courses via an online form provided by the British Council. Any information submitted on the online order form to redeem the benefits which is received before the opening date or after the closing date will not be processed. The British Council accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any technical failure or malfunction or any other problem with any system, server, provider or otherwise that may result in access to the benefits being lost, delayed or not properly registered.
5.2.6.3. Further details of the sign-up dates for specific benefits will be provided locally by participating British Council authorised exam centres.
6. Membership badge and promoting your membership
6.1. About the Advantage member badge
6.1.1. One of the benefits provided to Advantage members is the optional use of the Advantage member badge to support you with promoting your association with the British Council and your membership of Advantage.
6.1.2. The Advantage member badge will be provided to you by your local British Council exams centre along with the guidelines of use. Members must follow the guidelines which set how, when and where to apply the Advantage member badge, at all times. The guidelines are to help with the application of the badge along with usage rules and the approvals process.
6.1.3. The brand materials provided to Advantage members, that you can choose to use to promote your association with Cambridge English such as the preparation centre logo, strapline and certificate, are governed under the Terms of use provided and owned by Cambridge English.
7. Termination and amendments
7.1. The British Council reserve the right to introduce updates to these Terms and to review the exam services and benefits from time to time.
7.2 These Terms may change from time to time and, if they do, the up-to-date version will always be available on www.britishcouncil.org. We will also indicate at the top of these Terms of Use when they were last updated. Any revised version of these Terms will be effective immediately when it is displayed on www.britishcouncil.org.
7.3. Advantage may be terminated at any time by a participating British Council authorised exam centre by giving members 3 months’ notice.
7.4. The British Council may disqualify or refuse to accept the online registration or request to redeem the benefits of any participant which does not meet the rules for participation or does not otherwise comply with these Terms.
7.5. These Terms shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any disputes or claims (including, without limitation, non-contractual disputes or claims) arising out of or in connection with the benefits offered in Advantage.
8. Data Protection
8.1. The British Council will use the personal information provided on the Advantage online registration form in connection with processing the registration for Advantage membership and communicating with you to deliver the exam services and benefits you are entitled to. The legal basis for processing your information is acceptance of these Terms and conditions.
8.2. The British Council will use the personal information provided on the sign-up forms to receive the benefits provided by Cambridge in connection with processing the delivery of the benefits provided by Cambridge that you are entitled to. The information you provide will be transferred to Cambridge for the purpose of allowing access to the online courses. The legal basis for processing your information is acceptance of these Terms and conditions.
8.2.1. The data controller is the British Council, 1 Redman Place, Stratford, London, E20 1JQ, UK.
8.2.3. We will share your information with Cambridge University Press & Assessment as Data Controller with the appropriate safeguards; Cambridge University Press & Assessment of The Triangle Building, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge, CB2 8EA, UK for the following purposes:
- communicating with members to answer your queries about the benefits
- to organise access to the Cambridge One platform
- to invite members to attend optional online events in relation to the benefits
8.2.4. The British Council will communicate with you for the following purposes:
- communicating about the benefits you are entitled to
- to organise delivery of the membership benefits
- communicating about other exclusive promotions you are entitled to
8.2.5. The British Council and Cambridge will keep your personal information while you are an active member of the scheme and for two years after you notify your authorised exam centre that you wish to cease to be a member.
8.3 You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold on you, and the right to ask us to correct any inaccuracies in that information.
8.4 If you have concerns about how we have used your personal information, you also have the right to complain to a privacy regulator. For detailed information about your rights please refer to our website: www.britishcouncil.org/privacy.