13th April 2012 Islamabad, Pakistan
I really enjoy sharing my experiences and thoughts in an informal way through this blog. I’ve been able to do blog posts on subjects as diverse as foreign policy issues, the Commonwealth, the trade and education links between the UK and Pakistan and of course cricket. And I have particularly valued the feed back. But […]
11th April 2012 USA
Like a lot of people interested in US politics and economics, I’ve been thinking quite a bit recently about the results of the last US census and the excellent analyses that demographers, political pundits and others have done on them. One thing that really strikes me is the projections of the US’s population out to […]
5th March 2012 Beirut, Lebanon
A love of English language teaching is in my DNA. My first job was as an English teacher, to Palestinian schoolchildren. My Grandfather spent fifty years in Nigeria, promoting access to English education. And my father has devoted his life to making it easier and more fun for people to learn English. He lives the […]
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30th January 2012 Islamabad, Pakistan
Variety is one of the things I love about my job. It comes from the huge range of issues, people and types of engagement that connect the UK to Pakistan. We have just launched a multi-month communications campaign to celebrate that variety. It is called Celebrating Connections and it is in the media, on our […]
12th January 2012
British diplomats spend a lot of time learning foreign languages. Before each of my last four postings (in Vienna, Moscow, Berlin and Kyiv) I had the privilege of spending between four weeks and nine months on intensive language preparations. If you want to understand a country and its people, speaking the language helps. Conversely, the […]
20th December 2011 Beirut, Lebanon
The theme of last week’s International Human Rights Day was the role that social media can play in highlighting and challenging human rights abuses. So I was excited to be invited to take part in the American University of Beirut’s conference on Social Media Changing Lives, put together by the excellent @mhijazi and his team. […]
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6th December 2011
The Cleveland Indians, the Cleveland Browns, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Buckeyes. That’s just a few of the things associated with Cleveland in Northeast Ohio, home of my in-laws. But manufacturing has also traditionally been a part of Cleveland and Ohio’s landscape too. I was in Cleveland on 31 October and 1 November […]
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29th November 2011
I always seem to be talking about education in these blogs. That’s partly because the UKhas some of the best universities in the world as well as a schools sector which attracts people from all over the planet. But it’s also because many educational establishments are actively and successfully promoting British education right here in […]
17th October 2011
Amongst my various introductory calls since arriving in Rome this August, I have had the opportunity to visit the Venerable English College and the Pontifical Scots College. These are both ancient institutions – the Venerable English College celebrates the 650th anniversary of its foundation, by King Edward III, next year – which throughout their history […]
22nd July 2011 Toronto, Canada
This is John Preece guestblogging about an excellent new guide from the UK Higher Education International Unit (UKHEIU). As UK science officers, we here at SIN Canada are often approached by Canadian universities for information about how they can collaborate or partner with their British counterparts. Now, UKHEIU has done all our information-finding for us […]
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