British Council – Transnational Education (TNE) Exploratory Grants

Grants to support and strengthen transnational education partnerships between higher education institutions in the UK and selected other countries.

The British Council is providing transnational education (TNE) exploratory grants to support partnerships between higher education institutions in the UK and Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Türkiye. The awards are designed to support higher education institutions to become more international and raise the quality of their education in a more inclusive way.

The fund will prioritise partnerships that focus on one or more of the following priority themes from the British Council’s TNE Strategy:

• Creating an enabling environment for TNE in other countries and strengthening the quality of TNE.
• Contributing to the removal of barriers to TNE and supporting or creating new opportunities.
• Supporting TNE to contribute to the transformation of local education systems and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Intersectional proposals that address one or more of the priority themes above and embed one or more Equality, Diversity and Inclusion areas in the project are encouraged.

TNE Exploratory activities can be in any discipline or cross-discipline. Potential areas of focus include developing joint programmes and curricula, building the capacity of academics and staff, developing various models of TNE, working towards the recognition of UK degrees, developing processes, frameworks and guidelines for TNE collaboration and developing communities of practice.

The ambition is to support two partnerships in each non-UK country. Twelve of the project grants are open to institutions from anywhere in the UK, while two project grants are available for Northern Ireland and Welsh institutions only. There is a preference for Northern Ireland institutions to partner with Nigeria or Pakistan.

Grants will last up to 12 months commencing in January 2025.