This scholarship, funded by the IELTS Partners (British Council, IDP IELTS, and Cambridge University Press & Assessment), is given in memory of Morgan Terry. Morgan taught IELTS for many years, trained other teachers, and was prolific in developing test preparation materials for students. This scholarship honours her contribution to IELTS and recognises those who create learning resources to help IELTS test takers prepare for their tests.
The award consists of:
- registration for the Testing, Evaluation and Assessment Special Interest Group (TEASIG) pre-IATEFL conference event
- registration for the IATEFL conference
- a year's IATEFL membership
- a maximum of five nights' accommodation
- travel costs, including, if necessary, an economy flight to the UK* up to a maximum of GBP 1000.00
- GBP 55.00 per day expenses.
*This includes cost of flights and airport transfers, but not the costs of stopovers.
Who is eligible?
To qualify you must:
- have prepared learners for taking an IELTS test
- have never attended the main IATEFL annual conference
- agree to write an article six months after the conference about how attendance has enriched your practice.
How to apply
Your application should give an overview of an educational activity or learning resource that you have developed which could help prospective IELTS test takers prepare for their tests.
We recommend writing no more than 400–500 words to:
- clearly describe or illustrate your idea, what it is and how it works
- explain how it could benefit prospective test takers
- describe how it could be adapted and used by other teachers and learners.
Submissions will be evaluated in terms of originality, potential impact upon learning, and accessibility.
You can apply, via IATEFL's website, from mid-April/early May and the deadline for submission is 14:00 (UK time) 18 June 2025. The winner will be notified at the start of September.
Past scholarship winners
Interested in applying but not sure where to start? Seek inspiration from our past scholarship winners. Their creative and innovative classroom ideas have helped IELTS students improve their English language skills in preparation for the test.
Watch the videos to find out why they applied, what their winning ideas were, and how you can apply.
2025 scholarship winner
I applied for this scholarship because I got to know that this is a scholarship that recognises innovation in teaching and I'm a teacher who always tries to experiment in classes. So I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to share my ideas with other teachers who come to IATEFL conference.
My winning idea was using automatic speech recognition tools and AI to improve speaking skills of my students.
I actually came up with this idea when I met a student who was struggling with her speech because her speech was not very intelligible. When she wrote something, I could understand what she's trying to say, but not when she spoke. So I had to come up with a way to help her, to improve her speaking skills even without my presence, because as a teacher I have limited time to spend with them.
I really like the IATEFL conference because of three main reasons.
I got the opportunity to present in front of an international audience and I also won this prestigious scholarship and in addition to that, I think the best part of IATEFL is that I get the opportunity to meet a lot of ELT experts and practitioners from all over the world.
As well as coming to this conference, the scholarship also covered my travelling costs, accommodation, and other expenses.
I think judges are mainly looking for two things, creativity and practicality.
So you have to come up with a creative idea to help your students, but at the same time, it has to be practical. It should be practical enough to actually implement in a classroom.
It was super easy to apply to this scholarship, to be very honest.
If you have a very creative idea that can help your students and students around the world, you just need to write that idea in 500 words and submit.
That's it.
2024 scholarship winner
I applied for the IELTS IATEFL Morgan Terry Scholarship, because I saw it as a great opportunity, to show how virtual reality, can really help students.
We started using virtual reality during the global lockdowns and then from there we kind of saw the potential to use it not just for general English, but also for IELTS preparation and so we looked at Writing Academic Task 1, in which you compare two maps and we actually created the virtual worlds.
So this really helped them to understand what were some of the main differences between the two maps and really understand what the task was actually asking of them.
At this conference I've just learned so much. Everything from AI, to using lexical strategies in the classroom, and it's amazing and inspiring to learn from my colleagues and peers from all over the world and this conference in particular is just a great opportunity to learn and to continue to expand my teaching practice.
If you're thinking of applying, I say go for it, what you're doing might be absolutely new to people outside you and outside your organisation and it's a great opportunity to show what you're bringing to IELTS teaching and it's an amazing conference to come to, so you should definitely apply.
2022 and 2023 scholarship winners
Anestin: My name is Anestin Chi, I come from the Republic of Cameroon. I am an English and French languages teacher.
Natalia: I am Natalia from Italy and I've been a teacher since 2016. I've taught different ages and I used to be a teacher online and now I mainly teach face-to-face courses.
Anestin: My first motivation wasn't so much about winning the scholarship, it was about selling an idea, making, sharing it out.
So I saw a platform where I could share my vocabulary clock idea, say how it works and how it could be re-adapted in a context.
Natalia: So my winning idea was inspired by one teenage student because he's sad, he had no ideas whatsoever. But I knew that he was really into watching the The Office series. So I said, just pretend that you're one of the characters and give me answers to my questions, I will guess who you are. So there was like an element of a game. His speaking improved miraculously.
The IELTS judges are looking for creativity, and maybe for a different approach if you love an activity and you think it'll really help you with something, you should go for it. You should try to submit it.
Anestin: The first thing is to get the judge to be able to visualize your ideas so make it explicit in the way that they could actually picture it and see it in action
Natalia: It was so easy to apply for the scholarship, because it's specially designed for people who have never attended the conference.
Anestin: My advice to teachers who are thinking of applying will be, take the bold step, don’t be afraid.
Natalia: Just 400-500 words, your idea, that you really love and cherish. You just write it very quickly. Press submit. That's all. You go to Britain. If you’re lucky!