Amid bombs and security alerts, the British Council signed an agreement with Libyan officials which we hope will smooth the path of up to 5,000 Libyan scholars due to study in the UK each year. Cherry Gough, British Council Director Libya, reports.
A few minutes after I woke up on Tuesday, 23 April, there was a loud boom from the direction of the city. Now loud booms aren’t really unusual in Tripoli, but this one was very loud, and it was 7am. Wedding celebrations (which often involve anti-aircraft guns) happen in the evening and illegal fishing with dynamite happens at night.
Then the phone calls start… a huge car bomb at the French Embassy, the British Embassy is closed and the advice is for us not to open. So off we go on the telephone tree to tell everyone to stay home and get anyone already in the building out of it.
Between all the phone calls with our security team in the UK and the embassy, we’re organising a ministerial visit to the UK. The aim is to encourage the ministry to use the British Council’s skills and experience in managing scholarships and support their own massive programme, which currently involves around 3,000 scholars coming to the UK each year, and could potentially involve as many as 5,000.
News that the Libyan minister responsible for the scholarship programme is visiting the UK has generated much excitement in government, so we’re busy juggling VIPs: trying to fit one lord and two ministers into the programme. At the same time, the closure of the embassy is making the window for issuing the Libyan minister and his team’s visas almost impossibly tight.
I leave the country on Thursday, putting the British Council in the very capable hands of Justin, our teaching centre manager, who re-opens our centre on Friday to administer more than 150 IELTS exams with armed police outside the building.
On Sunday, I get a call to say that the minister would like to sign a memorandum of understanding with the British Council while he’s in the UK, stating their intention to contract the British Council to run the scholarship programme for them. Great news – although it does mean we have to write, check and agree the MoU in three working days.
The visit itself is a huge success. We get the necessary visas – although the delay means we have to squeeze a week’s visit into three days; both sets of ministers seem happy; the Libyan minister repeats many times the message that education is the key to Libya’s future, and that studying in the UK is the best way for Libyans to learn about openness and democracy; we meet some delightful Erasmus scholars and hear about what it’s really like to make a life as a student in a new country; there is much arcane discussion about the intricacies of scholarship programmes. And the MoU is signed.
The next step will be to sign the final agreement. The benefits to the UK are potentially enormous: by offering the best scholarship programme available, we’ll get the best students to the UK and stop the steady drain of scholars who would otherwise choose a logistically ‘easier’ Canada or a ‘more welcoming’ USA.
- We’ll work with the Home Office to make sure the visa process is clear, and that they understand Libyan scholars, so the scholars’ chances of obtaining visas are increased.
- We’ll offer the scholars a simple test (Aptis) to assess their English level and offer informed, impartial advice on the best way to improve it.
- We’ll provide a one-stop shop for placement and admissions so the scholars know what courses are on offer and which one is best for them.
- And we’ll do it all online and by phone, so the level of service will be the same for someone in Tripoli or down in the desert.
So as you can see, life at the British Council in Tripoli is swings and roundabouts – enormous opportunities in a context of sometimes very frightening instability. But in the end, the reason why we live with the bombs and the unpredictability is because we believe in what we’re doing, and we respect the people we’re doing it with.
We know that education will make a huge contribution to Libya’s future, and that’s where the UK has something exceptional to offer: the chance to get a world-class education in a country that’s proud (mostly) of its diversity and its openness. And if anybody deserves to get that chance, it’s the astonishing, hopeful, courageous young Libyan men and women we meet every day here in Tripoli. I hope more people in the UK get the chance to meet them, too.
Find out about our offer in Libya.
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