Students head off to the UK for a summer school experience

Monday 22 June 2015

Six Hong Kong students head off to the UK for a summer school experience
British Council reveals winners of the UK Summer School Competition 2015, a programme supported by British Airways and six UK prestigious universities

Six Hong Kong students were crowned today as winners of the British Council’s UK Summer School Competition 2015 which received twice as many entries compared with last year’s inaugural competition. The challenge for competitors was to answer: ‘What would you do if you could spend a day in the life of your favourite UK celebrity, icon, historical figure or fictional character?’ The six winners will be experiencing a summer programme at one of the UK’s top educational institutions this summer.

The judging panel included Tracy Dedman, British Airways’ regional general manager for Greater China and the Philippines, Dr Christopher See, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong and University of Cambridge alumnus, and representatives from the participating UK institutions, including Aberystwyth University, Bath Spa University, Swansea University, University of Worcester, Concord College, and University of East Anglia.

“The UK Summer School Competition strengthens our work in promoting student mobility and mirrors a sister competition organised by our colleagues at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London. The standard of this year’s entries was fabulous and did Hong Kong proud. Yet again, local students demonstrated their creativity. Some chose to write, and others submitted video entries. I have no doubt that the six youngsters will have a wonderful time getting to know more about the UK and will be superb ambassadors for Hong Kong. We want it to be the experience of a lifetime!” said Robert Ness, Director of British Council Hong Kong.

Tracy Dedman, British Airways’ regional general manager for Greater China and the Philippines said, “it is encouraging to see so many young and talented people around us, their creative thinking is very inspiring. British Airways is proud to be a sponsor and we will be flying them to the UK to start their amazing experiences.”

The six winning students will be heading off to the UK to study at one of the summer school courses starting from June to August this year. The winners will receive return flights on British Airways and accommodation supplied by the hosting institutions. Details of the winners and their trips are:

Name and school	Creative form and topic	Receiving institution in the UK
Christina Chi-yan Cheung from True Light Middle School of Hong Kong	Video: Doctor Who (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r-sKnLMTTU)	Aberystwyth University
Yat-Chun Wong from G.T. (Ellen Yeung) College	Video: Tom Daley (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-3u5l7NE6s)	Bath Spa University
Nastassia Torio from YMCA of Hong Kong Christian College	Writing: Steven Moffat	Swansea University
Jose Hoi-yiu Lee from Diocesan Girls’ School	Writing: Sherlock Holmes	University of Worcester
Clara Hoi-ying Chan from Wa Ying College	Video: David Beckham (https://youtu.be/4Wul7MPHlM0)	Concord College
Michelle Tsz-ling Wong from St. Paul’s Co-educational College	Writing: Sherlock Holmes	University of East Anglia

For more details, please visit www.britishcouncil.hk, British Council Hong Kong’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishCouncilHK, or British Airways’ Facebook page at www.facebook.com/britishairways.

Notes to Editor

About British Airways

British Airways' route network currently serves more than 179 cities in 75 countries. British Airways has been flying to Hong Kong for nearly 80 years and currently operates 14 direct flights a week between Hong Kong and London. The airline is the only carrier to operate an Airbus A380 direct service between Hong Kong and London.

The airline operates from the state-of-the-art Terminal 5 at London Heathrow, which is exclusive to British Airways’ and Iberia Airlines’ customers and is capable of handling 30 million customers a year. In 2015, Terminal 5 was named by Skytrax as the Best Airport Terminal for the fourth year running, based on surveys of 12 million frequent travellers. Terminal 5 also won the Best Airport Shopping award.

In October 2014, British Airways was awarded the Best Airline, Best Short-Haul Airline and Best Frequent Flyer Programme by Business Traveller for the second consecutive year. The oneworld alliance, of which British Airways was a founding airline, came first in the Best Alliance category.

In March 2015, British Airways was also named the top Business and Consumer Superbrand at the Superbrands 2015 Awards, becoming the first travel brand to win both prestigious titles.

About the British Council

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide.

We work in more than 100 countries and our 8,000 staff – including 2,000 teachers – work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year by teaching English, sharing the arts and delivering education and society programmes. In Hong Kong, we have been doing this since 1948, giving people opportunities to learn, share and connect worldwide.

We are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter. A core publicly-funded grant provides 20 per cent of our turnover which last year was £864 million. The rest of our revenues are earned from services which customers around the world pay for, such as English classes and taking UK examinations, and also through education and development contracts and from partnerships with public and private organisations. All our work is in pursuit of our charitable purpose and supports prosperity and security for the UK and globally.

For more information, please visit: www.britishcouncil.org . You can also keep in touch with the British Council through http://blog.britishcouncil.org/. To learn more about British Council in Hong Kong, please visit www.britishcouncil.hk and www.facebook.com/BritishCouncilHK.