FIVE MALAYSIAN STUDENTS WIN THE BRITISH COUNCIL IELTS PRIZE 2015 TO PURSUE THEIR DREAMS OF STUYDING OVERSEAS
Studying overseas has been a dream for many students in Malaysia and across the world. With an aim to connect people with learning opportunities, the British Council launched the IELTS Prize in 2011 and since then, it has supported a total of 123 students in the East Asia region* in entering universities worldwide. This year, 47 prize winners were added to the list. The British Council also awarded five students in the East Asia region with an amount of £12,000 each, who will be entering their dream universities overseas to pursue further education.
The award presentation ceremony in Malaysia was held at Hotel Maya, Kuala Lumpur on 2 September 2015. For the first time ever, a regional prize winner was selected from Malaysia and will receive a grand prize valued at £12,000. Each of the four local Malaysian prize winners also received a prize valued at RM10,000 as a subsidy towards their tuition fees.
“As an international English proficiency test, IELTS has grown its popularity with over 2.5 million of tests taken in 2014, and is now recognised by over 9,000 organisations, including universities, employers and immigration authorities worldwide.” said Greg Selby, Director Examinations, Examinations Services, East Asia. “We are pleased that our wide international acceptance and the IELTS prize are helping more students in East Asia to pursue further study overseas.”
This year the British Council extended the IELTS prize to award five regional prizes to top prize winners in the East Asia region. All of the regional prizewinners will be pursuing further study in the UK. Hong Seok Lee from Korea will attend London School of Economics and Political Science in the UK for a bachelor’s degree in Politics and International Relations while Vu Dihn Hung from Vietnam will take on a bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Nottingham University. Prethika Nair from Singapore and Riza Purnama from Indonesia will study for a master’s degree in University of Edinburgh and University College London respectively.
With an aspiration to contribute to the country’s education sector, Cassandra Tam from Malaysia, who will study for a Master of Science in Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the UK, expressed her appreciation for the IELTS Prize in providing her financial support, which, in turn, brings her one step closer to her aspiration. She said, “IELTS helped build my confidence in speaking which I believe will be greatly advantageous when studying abroad. Being a global language, it encourages cross-culture sharing as it enables communication among individuals from different parts of the world. More importantly, it is a uniting factor that enhances one’s linguistic abilities without undermining the significance of one’s mother tongue.”
As an IELTS official test centre, the British Council provides full support in preparing students in taking the IELTS exams, including Road to IELTS, specially designed online practice materials for registered students, access to different preparation materials and IELTS Preparation Courses in our KL and Penang centres. Furthermore, test sessions are organised up to three times a month, which give students flexibility for the most suitable sessions. For more information, please visit http://www.britishcouncil.my/exam/ielts
*The East Asia region includes Hong Kong/Macau, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.