Page 8 - ELG1601 Oct Issue 440

Page iv ELAsia Pacific 2016

ost students coming to Best buys in the British Isles?
Britain are on a budget
M– and what they want
is more ‘bang for their buck’.
Much as they would like to sign
up for a three-week residential
course at Harrow School or a Melanie Butler checks out the top private language schools which cost less than £12.50 an hour
summer school at ICL, most of
them simply cannot afford it.
The fact that students put price burgh and Glasgow. In the north
first has become very clear of England, it is the smaller cit-
since we launched our consumer ies that you should head for,
website www.el-go.com, which while London has the highest
ranks language schools both on number of good-value schools.
quality, based on British Council In terms of chain schools, two
reports, and price. names stand out: CES, which
Our search analytics show has four of its six schools on
that the first thing most students the map, and Language Stud-
enter is a price point: they nor- ies International, with three
mally tick the lowest two price out of four. Both Skola schools
bands. They then tick the high- for adults also make the grade.
est quality band. If this doesn’t Members of the International
give them the course they need, House affiliate scheme, one of
or if it is not in the location they the biggest consumer brands
want, they tick each lower qual- internationally, also do well,
ity band in turn until they get a with three out of six UK affili-
selection. They are willing to ates making it in.
look at lower-quality schools, The chains don’t have it their
but not higher-priced ones. own way. Well-established
Within the private sector there family-owned schools also do
is a great variation in price per well – both the Lake School of
hour, and price has no clear cor- English, which is joint second in
relation with quality, at least as Britain on our rankings, and Lan-
measured by British Council guage Specialists International
inspection results. While the fur- in Portsmouth, which scores one
ther education colleges almost point lower on inspection, make
always cost below average, and it in at under £12.50 per hour. n
most university language cen-
tres are bang on the average at Glasgow
£12.50–16 an hour including
extras, they rarely offer short Edinburgh
courses in the summer. So where
should short-stay students look
for great-value schools?
First of all we have to define
value. In this article we have
defined it as a course which
costs below £12.50 an hour Derry
including extras. Any school Newcastle
with a quality score above mean
average, based on the summary
statement given by the inspec- Belfast
tors, and a price of less than
£12.50 per hour appears on the
list. Any school which charges
£10 an hour or less and scores Harrogate
above the mode average also
appears on the list. Every British
Council-accredited school we Northern Ireland
could find that met these criteria International House Belfast Liverpool
is listed near the map. Foyle International Language School,
Because students care about Derry
location as well as price, all the
schools that meet the criteria are Northern Ireland is the UK’s hidden Llangollen
listed in rank order in the region jewel: green and safe with breathtaking
in which they appear on the map. scenery. Unlike the Republic of Ireland
Some regions have more to the south, the country has very few
good-value schools than others. private language schools. All of them are
There are only two accredited to be found either in the capital, Belfast,
private language schools in or the cultural centre of Derry (or Lon-
Northern Ireland, for example donderry as the English call it), where
– and they both make it into our Foyle International Language School is
list. The number varies from based. If you enjoy live music, friendly
region to region, as you can see people and romantic scenery but prefer
from the map. In Scotland the to go where there are few foreign stu-
good-value schools are clustered dents, this could be the place for you. Cardiff
in the two main cities: Edin- Cirencester

Bristol
Wales
Mulberry School of English, Llangollen Southampton
WE Bridge Academy, Cardiff Exeter Bournemouth
Capital School of English, Cardiff
Paignton
Wales is the safest of the four constitu- Plymouth
ent countries of the United Kingdom.
Everyone speaks English but over 20
per cent also speak Welsh. Welsh peo-
ple are good at teaching languages
because they are good at learning them.
The main EFL centre is the capital, Car- South-West England South-west England is made up of four
diff, voted one of the best cities in the counties: Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and
UK for students to live, but many peo- International House Bristol Somerset. Bristol, close to Wales, is the
ple go to Wales for the mountains and Devon School of English, Paignton historic capital of the region and is a
the luxuriant green countryside which ETC International, Bournemouth major university city with a large media
surrounds small friendly towns like MLS International, Bournemouth industry and a small but growing number
Llangollen, home of Mulberry English SKOLA, English in Exeter of language schools. Bristol is unique in
School, the only Centre of Excellence Capital School of English, Bournemouth that half of all its language schools are
here. Wales is the fastest-growing EFL Bristol Language Centre Centres of Excellence, including Interna-
destination in Britain. Bristol Language College tional House Bristol. The EFL capital of

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