For 90 years the British Council has used the power of culture and education to build connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. Scott McDonald, British Council Chief Executive and David Thompson, Director of UK & External Relations, look at how education and culture contribute to a country’s soft power and how it can help Britain reap the rewards of growth, security and influence.
TS Elliot wrote that ‘culture may be described simply as that which makes life worth living.’ We should never forget that, and we should never forget the power of our culture to inform new audiences, to challenge values that stand in opposition to our own and to inspire the next generation. It is the business of everyone who cares about Britain’s place in the world to do everything they can to place UK culture centre stage.
If that sounds like a case for reinvesting time, energy and money into the UK’s soft power, you’d be right. If you agree with that case, you would also be pleased with the initial sounds that the UK’s new government has been making on soft power, and the need to prioritise it as one of Britain’s most potent capabilities in the choppy international waters of 2024.
Recent research has found that while financial investment in soft power is decreasing for some Western nations, others were found to be increasing resource in key areas such as competition for international students and investing in high-impact arts and cultural activities which can have transformational impacts on reputation and perceptions.
If Britain wants to reap the rewards of growth, security and influence supported by a senior place on the world stage, then it must focus its limited resources on the most potent attributes it has to make it a global force for internationalism.
One such force is in education. Our rich network of universities and colleges is genuinely world-class. These networks should ensure they provide young people with the intercultural and language capabilities, as well as the global understanding, needed to supply a new generation of businesspeople, diplomats, and leaders with the skills to engage, collaborate and compete.
We should seize the opportunities from offering UK education overseas, promoting the UK’s education brand while also building capacity in countries where demand for higher education outstrips supply. Adding vocational training designed to help young people into employment would also prevent brain drain overseas and help alleviate immigration pressures in the UK. That mutually beneficial approach, focused on building progressive and modern partnerships based on trust, respect and mutual benefit is an essential part of encouraging many of the most important countries to work with us in the century ahead.
We should also place our education system at the service of renewed and vigorous international mobility for students, getting young people circulating and learning freely between our countries once again.
China should be a focus, but we should also be taking action to equip learners to engage with the Gulf and other Arabic-speaking nations, as well as the vast populations in South East Asia, Africa and the Americas that have a strong desire to connect with us.
The global appetite for the English language is expanding, and the UK should be resolute in promoting it to foster connections and advance a shared future of peace, security, and prosperity. Recent research reveals that English-taught bachelor’s and master’s degrees have tripled over the last decade. These courses are no longer confined to institutions in countries like the UK and US, having seen significant growth in Europe and East Asia. English is increasingly becoming a vital tool in helping people achieve their international dreams and ambitions, promoting a mutual exchange of international knowledge and development.
When Scott travels around the world as British Council chief executive, he meets thousands of government ministers and officials, business, community and cultural leaders, and young people, who all share an enthusiasm for and willingness to engage with the UK. Those bonds are further strengthened by the numerous diasporas living here that link us with other countries.
Those countries seeking connections with the UK do so with a clear sense of what is in their national interest. Connecting with the UK means doing business with a country that has a long history of the rule of law, fair play and governance, that is relatively stable, and that has a centuries-long tradition of creativity and innovation. Demand for engagement with us remains high almost everywhere.
In 2024, the Royal Navy might not be what it was a century ago, our per capita income has stagnated, and the UK’s nations and regions see significant disparities in wealth. By some, internally and externally, we are perceived as a nation in decline. On the other hand, we are still the world’s sixth-largest economy, with diversification and strengths in critical technologies. We have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. We are the fifth largest provider of development aid and ranked second in terms of soft power in some surveys.
The UK should be unafraid to champion what really puts the Great into Great Britain. Pertinently in a time when we have recently seen civil unrest in the UK, TS Elliot summed it up best when he wrote that ‘a national culture, if it is to flourish, should be a constellation of cultures, the constituents of which, benefiting each other, benefit the whole.’