In September the Government announced further details of the new-style Student visa route, which will replace the current Tier 4 route from January 2021 and be open to all international students studying in the UK from 1 January 2021. Applications will open at 9:00 GMT on 5 October.

English Connects: UK online ELT awards

Request for proposal from the British Council

Jointly funded by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the British Council and managed by the British Council, English Connects is a programme to connect African youth and the future generation of leaders with the UK through English. It aims to improve the quality of English language teaching and learning, particularly in French and Portuguese speaking countries in Sub-Saharan Africa where the British Council is unrepresented, thus creating opportunities to enable young people to increase their potential to study and improve their employability and networks.

English UK's campaign to keep ID card travel for EU juniors was put to the vote in the House of Lords this week where it was rejected by a frustratingly small 14 votes. While it is disappointing not to have won the vote, the result was not wholly unexpected, and we have many other positives from the campaign, not least the high profile support of cross-bench peers, which was picked up by the national press. 

English UK's campaign to keep ID card travel for ELT students received support in the House of Lords in September, when our suggested amendment to the Immigration and Social Security Bill was debated.

Bath MP Wera Hobhouse highlighted the plight of English language teaching centres during a debate on tourism on 10 September, and followed up her intervention with a letter to Nigel Huddleston, the minister for sport, tourism and heritage.