ELT Master's Dissertation Award

British Council Master's Dissertation Award with Best Potential for Impact on ELT

Introduction

For the last 11 years, the British Council has partnered with UK universities to find ELT Master's dissertations with potential for impact on policy and practice. The scheme, where universities submit one dissertation from their ELT Master's programmes and then judge them along with a panel of British Council experts, is designed to recognise and celebrate the brightest minds in ELT at Master's level. By publishing the dissertations on the British Council website, the high quality dissertations become additions to the canon of research in ELT and accessible to practitioners around the world, thereby raising the profile of the authors and universities alike. The scheme is an opportunity for institutions to promote their programmes and for recent graduates to establish themselves in the field.

Each institution is invited to submit one dissertation which has already been marked at distinction level. A summary of no more than two pages, written or approved by the tutor, is sent with the dissertation. In addition to summarising the dissertation this should address the issue of potential for impact. Impact here is defined as the potential of the work to change the attitudes, practices or policies of individuals or institutions. The British Council publish the best dissertations and summaries online free of charge. 

Conditions of entry:

  • Permission from the author for both the summary and the dissertation to be published in any form by British Council on a non-exclusive basis.

The judging process

The judging process for the awards is a collaborative and thorough process. All dissertations are submitted from UK institutions, marked at distinction level. ELT experts from UK universities and the British Council contribute to the judging. The first round of judging is based on the summaries, and the final round involves the whole dissertation.
 
The call for submissions is now open for the 2022 awards.
 
See our FAQs about the award for further information.

Research and insight

Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

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