Deadline: 29-Oct-21
The British Council has launched its request for proposal for Strengthening Capacity for Youth and Civic Leadership Education in Universities (UNICYCLE) programme.
This initiative offers an opportunity for partnership between universities in the UK and Sri Lanka focussed on strengthening youth and civic leadership education through international collaboration. It will engage university staff, students, and local organisations to explore how global issues impact on communities in their respective countries and how community-level responses seek to mitigate and address the effect of these issues.
Through dialogue and conducting community projects, UK participants will develop a more intimate understanding of local social systems within which their university is embedded and participate in knowledge and cultural exchange with peers in Sri Lankan universities, strengthening intercultural awareness and gaining a greater understanding of similarities and differences in community development practices.
In this innovative project, grants are available for UK Higher Education Institutes to form partnerships with universities in Sri Lanka to strengthen youth and civic leadership education.
Objectives
UNICYCLE utilises and builds upon British Council’s award-winning training methodology ‘’Active Citizens’’, and have two complementary objectives:
- To develop new skills, knowledge, and motivation for students to work with their communities, building trust and undertaking social action or research.
- To develop global connections between institutional partners, students, and communities, fostering collaboration at an organisational level and contributing to building trust and understanding between different cultures.
Funding Information
The maximum Delivery grant available is £15,500. 85% of the Delivery grant will be issued on receipt of the signed Grant Agreement at the beginning of the cycle.
Phases of the Project
The project has two distinct phases, based on the ‘Globally Connected, Locally Engaged’ model:
- In the 1 st phase (Locally Engaged) January – March 2022
- The 2 nd phase (Globally Connected) April – May 2022
Why does this approach benefit a Higher Education Institution?
- Students: enhance their learning, developing wider skills of teamwork, of enquiry and dialogue, of advocacy and campaigning, understanding their society better, understanding and valuing their place as initiators, leaders, as socially responsible assets to the wider community.
- The local community: benefits from student social action, in the short and longer term, through transformational interventions and longer term, in recognising the students from the local university might help them with local problems.
- The institution: locally develops a stronger relationship to the locality and is seen as a greater asset, often because the education from the institution is finding application. This in turn benefits the student body in recognising the policy-related application of their knowledge and research.
- The faculty members: that train in facilitation skills develop their range of teaching styles, often finding new impetus and improved impact on the student body through using their new skills in teaching their subject.
- The institution nationally: is seen to be contributing to a wider societal need to train and retain students in the locality or country. Students recognize how they can support the country in areas such as conflict resolution, conservation, sustainable development and enterprise. In some places this can counteract the ‘brain drain’ to other countries. Working on such international collaborations also will give the partners an excellent opportunity to learn from the experience of international partners facing similar challenges; support their institutional strategy of internationalisation, which can enhance the culture, profile, and reputation of their organisation; create unrivalled staff and student development opportunities; and build a presence in the partner country, which can lead to a whole range of further development and partnership opportunities
Eligibility Criteria
Proposals must fulfil the following criteria in order to be eligible for funding under this Programme:
- The applicant must be a Higher Education Institute (Not-for-profit) in the UK. The applicant may form a UK consortium for this submission, though this would not be mandatory nor considered favourably in the selection.
- Eligibility checks will be applied to all applications after the grant call closes. Those which are not by an eligible institution will be rejected during these checks.
- The British Council is committed to equal opportunities and diversity and will consider, on a case-by-case basis, requests for support for any additional travel and participation requirements in the applications, as long as sufficient justification is provided.
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3b7XUJs