Page 1 - ELG1601 Nov Issue 441

eLgazette

£3.50 • US$6.50 • ¥700 • €5.50 The newspaper for English language and international education Issue 441 | November 2016

Skill up

the CEO

Inside... One in five of managers lack
the english skills to do their
job, according to new research
conducted by Cambridge eng-
lish Language Assessment and
QS university rankings. The
research, based on a survey of
5,373 employers in 88 countries,
was launched in the eU Parlia-
ment on 27 September.
According to Cambridge eng-
Copyright UNHCR/Diana Diaz believe that 22 per cent of their
lish, the employers surveyed in
its english at work ‘overview’
top managers do not have the
level of english required but just
4 per cent are planning to improve
The skills gap varies dramati-
Page 3: Celebrating their employees’ english.
cally around the world. in india
Shakespeare and SANCTUARY Alnur Burtel, 71, fled Sudan’s nine out of ten ‘top managers’
Cervantes in style May aims to cut ... South Kordofan region in 2011, leaving have the english skills to perform
everything behind except his devotion to
their jobs effectively, compared
education. He taught English at the local high with just 6 per cent in China. in
school and at Omdurman University, and in France, Belgium and Switzerland
UK Prime minister Theresa may has offi- by Labour mP Wes Streeting, the minister January 2016 built and opened the Light only 5 per cent lack the necessary
cially confirmed that international students for higher education Jo Johnson confirmed in Learning Centre (pictured) in the refugee english language skills, compared
will not be removed from the net migration Parliament that the use of the system for inter- camp in Ethiopia where he lives, teaching to 23 per cent in Spain. n
figures, which she claims will be cut to the national students was a subject of discussion English and civics to about 130 refugees.
‘tens of thousands’. A recent survey shows with the Home Office. ‘Young refugees are wasting their lives,’ he See http://englishatwork.
that 75 per cent of British people do not Whichever quality measurement is used, the said. ‘It’s time to end these problems.’ cambridgeenglish.org for the report
view students as migrants, and 62 per cent government cannot cut net migration figures
say their numbers should not be cut. substantially prior to the completion of Brexit
may has consistently refused to remove without cutting the number of international
international students from net migration students going to UK universities. The migra-
figures, despite pleas from Amber rudd, tion Observatory of the University of Oxford
the new home secretary responsible for points out, ‘Students make up the largest
immigration, according to a report in the number of non-eU citizens in the net migra-
Page 4: International Financial Times. tion figures, and by far the largest number of
House gives out prizes rudd recently called for restricting stu- those students are going to university.’ The
for speaking ‘Globish’ dents based on the ‘quality’ of the university long-term impact of students on net migration
course, although the definition of quality has depends on the numbers leaving at the end of
not been clarified yet. many presume it refers their visa, which remains a data conundrum.
to Britain’s elite russell Group, but at a recent Around 1 per cent of students overstay
conference on university admissions, naric, their visas, according to a recent Home
the UK body responsible for verifying inter- Office report leaked to The Times newspa-
national qualifications, suggested it would be per. The report, which was based on actual
based on university compliance rates, which entry and exit check statistics for 2015,
reflect the number of students accepted who showed that only around 1,500 overstayed
then have their visas refused by UK immigra- – a far cry from the 90,000 estimated by the
tion. This was one basis given for extending international Passenger Survey, relied on by
rights for postgraduates at four ‘high-quality the government, and the 30,000 suggested
research universities’: Oxford, Cambridge, by the Labour Force Survey.
imperial and Bath. The University of Bath is However the migration Observatory,
not a member of the russell Group and was which has not seen the figures obtained by
not ranked in the THE top 200 world uni- the Times, warned that they only covered one
versities; it does, however, score highly on year. ‘exit check statistics have the potential
Page 10: Why native the Teaching excellence Framework (TeF), to resolve the question about whether there
speakers are out of according to a pilot ranking in the THE. is significant overstaying among non-eU
fashion in Korea The TeF, which is based largely on student students. [However] a year’s worth of data
feedback, was devised by the Department of will tell us something about short-term stu-
education as the basis on which universities dents, but less about long-term students on
can raise UK fees. in response to a question multi-year courses.’ n

... while Ireland eyes growth

ireLAnD AimS to boost its international aimed at a further 25 per cent growth. in terms
student enrolment from 8.8 per cent at ter- of overall eFL student numbers, its industry
tiary level to 15 per cent by 2020, according is already the biggest per capita in the world.
to ambitious plans put forward by the irish While irish language school groups are
government. in 2014 the country had fewer busy taking over UK centres (see page 4),
international students enrolled at its universi- British universities are looking across the irish
ties than the UAe, according to Unesco figures Sea. With Theresa may threatening to cut
on the global flow of tertiary level students. international student numbers and access to
4-page supplement: irish eFL, which has seen rapid growth in eU research funding at risk following Brexit,
With a special look its summer sector on the back of falls in UK several unis are reported to be considering set-
at young learners enrolments, will receive government support ting up satellite campuses in Dublin. n

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