Melanie Butler explains how we calculate our Centre of Excellence scores
Click here for a full PDF of the Centres of Excellence listings.
To become an EL Gazette Centre of Excellence you need to be a UK language centre accredited by the British Council, and to have been awarded at least nine areas of strength at your most recent inspection, putting you in the top 25 per cent of centres in the UK, based on the judgement of the inspectors.
The areas of strength are recorded on the summary statement, which appears at the bottom of the first page of the full inspection report for every accredited language centre. The reports can be found under the first letter of the centre name here: https://www.britishcouncil.org/education/ac creditation/centres, on the British Council website.
The summary statement notes every area for which the centre has an area of strength. The British Council inspection covers up to 15 areas: strategic and quality management, staff management, student administration, publicity, premises and facilities, learning resources, academic staff profile, academic management, course design, learner management, teaching, care of students, accommodation, leisure opportunities, and safeguarding under-18s.
Two areas of Inspection, safeguarding under- 18s and accommodation, do not apply to all centres, either because they don’t enrol under-18s or because they do not offer accommodation. A few centres do neither. So, while most centres are inspected in 15 areas, some are only inspected in 14 areas, and a handful in 13.
For every area inspected, a centre is judged as either having a strength, meeting the standard or needing improvement. Only the ‘areas of strength’ and the ‘needs for improvement’ are noted on the summary statement.
For each accredited centre, we calculate a basic net score. We give one point for each of the areas of strength noted in the summary statement and deduct a point for any need of improvement. Here is an example:
“The English language teaching department of this university offers courses in general and academic English for adults (18+) and young people (16+).
Strengths were noted in the areas of premises and facilities, learning resources, academic management, academic staff profile, course design, care of students, and accommodation.
The inspection report noted a need for improvement in the area of publicity.”
“So, while most centres are inspected in 15 areas, some are only inspected in 14 areas, and a handful in 13.”
This centre received seven areas of strength and one need for improvement so it has six net areas of strength. As it does not have nine net areas of strength, it does not qualify as a Centre of Excellence.
The obvious thing to do next is to divide the net areas of strength gained by the number of areas it is inspected under. We start by checking the total number of areas inspected: 13, 14 or 15.
The Gazette database, however, lists every accredited centre with its areas of strengths and needs for improvement. Since around 10 per cent of centres have a net strength score of zero and another four per cent or so pass inspection with a negative net score (more needs for improvement than areas of strength).
When you put scores of zero and negative numbers into a statistical calculation you get some very strange results. Besides, passing inspection – even with a score of zero areas of strength or even minus three must be worth something.
To ensure all schools who have passed inspection are given a positive score, we add a ‘range modifier’ of 4 to their areas of strength, and then deduct the needs for improvement. Then we divide the adjusted total by the areas inspected in that centre and report the score as a mark out of ten. This gives us the standardised score.
Currently only centres with a standardised score of 6.8 or above, and with nine net areas of strength, are judged to be a Centre of Excellence and appear in this listing.
