bbc | Foreign Students

Watch the London 2012 Opening Ceremony

Submitted by Foreign Students on Sun 29/07/12

On Friday night, the London 2012 Opening Ceremony officially opened the Olympic Games. Directed by Oscar-winning film director Danny Boyle, the ceremony was both spectacular and very clearly British at the same time.

It was based loosely on the Shakespeare play The Tempest and charted Britain's history, right from rural greenery, to the industrial revolution, to World War I, to the Beatles to modern day Britain. It climaxed with a stunning lighting of the Olympic cauldron. Seven young Olympic British hopefuls were handed torches by current Olympians and they each lit one of 204 separate 'petals'. These all slowly caught fire and rose up to create one huge flame. Watch the stunning footage here.

Instead of us simply describing the ceremony to you, you can watch it for yourself in its entirety on the BBC website here. One particular highlight was an amazing scene when James Bond met a very special person at Buckingham Palace. You can watch it below.

Should Students be Counted in Immigration Figures?

Submitted by Foreign Students on Mon 16/07/12

One of the hottest topics on the higher education agenda at the moment, is whether to include international students in the immigration statistics for Britain. Currently they are included, but there is a growing list high profile figures arguing that they shouldn't be.

Watch the BBC report below to get an idea of the arguments for and against. What do you think? Leave your comments below.

BBC London 2012 Advert Unveiled

Submitted by Foreign Students on Mon 02/07/12

The BBC used half-time of the Euro 2012 final last night as the perfect time to reveal the title sequence for their coverage of the London 2012 Olympics. The animated trailer works on the idea of the whole of the UK becoming a giant stadium for the Games. It features music created by the band Elbow specially for the campaign, which will be available for with all profits going to Children in Need and Sport Relief.

The Olympics are starting on 27 July and in the UK will be shown exclusively on the BBC. So without further ado, watch the video below.

Jay-Z and Rihanna Headline Hackney Weekend

Submitted by Foreign Students on Mon 25/06/12

This weekend saw an area in East London usually used for local football games taken over by some of the biggest names in music as part of Hackney Weekend. 100,000 lucky fans got free tickets to the two-day music festival which was part of the London 2012 Festival and organised by BBC Radio 1. They were treated to performances from Jay-Z, Rihanna and Dizzee Rascal among many others.

A Festival for Locals

Hackney was chosen as the location after it became clear that many local people felt left out of the Olympics despite it being so close. BBC Radio 1 controller and head of the festival, Ben Cooper, explained:

"Here at Radio 1 and 1Xtra we wanted to make sure that we marked this in a way that would give young people from London and beyond, who might not necessarily be engaged with the Games, a chance to celebrate as part of Festival 2012."

Indeed, the opening act on the main stage on Saturday had a very local feel to it. Leona Lewis who grew up in nearby Islington kicked things off along side the Hackney Empire Community Choir and local rapper Wretch 32: