Almost two decades ago, the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) was established to test whether the students or immigrants whose native language is not English were able to communicate in the language once they arrived in native English speaking countries.

Today, with more than 6,000 educational institutes across the world giving credence to IELTS, it is no doubt a very popular English language testing system. IELTS has two distinct categories – an academic program for professionals looking for immigration and a general program for students who wish to study in countries where this test is accepted as a means to establish English proficiency.

For the past couple of years, there has been a steep rise in students from India going abroad for higher studies and IELTS is the preferred testing system to establish their credibility to study in universities /colleges abroad.

Keeping in view the above fact, the British council has announced an IELTS Scholarship award for 2011. Eight scholarship award winning students will receive Rs. 3,00,000/- to pursue a post-graduate program in any of the universities/ colleges worldwide where IELTS is accepted as the English language testing system.

This scholarship aims to provide brilliant students from India an opportunity to study and train in the best institutes across the world which otherwise would have been difficult for them given the higher cost of studying abroad.