The British Council is the United Kingdom's leading cultural relations organisation, with offices in 110 countries.

The British Council connects people worldwide with learning opportunities and creative ideas from the UK and builds lasting relationships between the UK and other countries.

History in Serbia

The first British Council office in Belgrade(old Yugoslavia)was opened on 13 January 1940. It was known as the Yugoslav-British Institute and occupied the first two floors of the Anglo-American-Yugoslav club. The Club itself was located in the heart of the town, in the building that is today known as Albanija. At that time two main British Council activities were:running English language courses and an English kindergarten.

During the Second World War the work was disrupted, but was resumed as early as in June 1945. The first British Council Library was set up as part of the operation in 1946. Development of cultural and technical cooperation was also very rapid with first exchanges and visits taking place in1947.

Having moved premises several times and having had the office and library separated for almost 40 years, British Council Serbia settled into their current building on Terazije Street in January 2001. It is now some 100 meters away from the place where the first office began work as part of the Yugoslav-British Institute.

New profile

The British Council across Europe – and in Serbia- has redefined its role in order to ensure that the work continues to contribute to stronger cultural relations within and beyond Europe in a rapidly changing environment.

On 19 April 2008 the British Council stopped providing library services in Belgrade and transferred the resources to new partne rlibraries in Novi Sad and Niš.  This was also a response to the long-standing needs of two main SerbianUniversity cities outside the capital, and idea to provide information services to a wider audience in Serbia.

The Belgrade office is now more focused on examination services and distance learning possibilities and, of course, the online provision of information through our wide range of web services for teachers, students and learners of English and continue other in-house workshops for teachers, students and young professionals.