Education UK Exhibition 2014, ‘Where Great Journeys Begin’

Walking around the Education UK Exhibition with my British Council colleagues, there was a real buzz in the air. Hundreds of prospective students were firing questions at representatives from 43 British universities and educational institutions. It’s our flagship education event of the year. A one stop shop to get answers about studying and living in the UK. By some estimates, there are close to a quarter of a million different British courses on offer.

I am proud of the fact that the UK remains by far the most popular overseas destination for Bruneian students. But we’re not complacent. There’s a lot of choice out there. Fortunately, the British Universities Brunei Association (BUBA) always keeps an energetic focus on Brunei. Reaching out to schools, BUBA this year ran a competition inspired by the popular Dragon’s Den TV series. Finalists came up with a business idea which they then pitched to a panel of foreign and local judges at the British High Commission. The standard was high and I was delighted to present awards to the top three teams. The overall winners from JIS won a prize to visit the UK, including British universities.

The winners also got to meet Wg Cdr Andy Green, the fastest man on earth, who explained why the UK was home to some of the world’s best science and technology needed to build the world’s first 1,000 miles per hour car. I will be blogging separately on Andy’s visit later on in the week.