Page 16 - ELG1807 July Issue 459

MARKET REPORT: LONDON .

Put value at the centre

To calculate the best value schools, divide quality by price. Melanie Butler
shows you how the Gazette did this for Central London

Top Value schools in Outliers
Central London
School Price/h Inspection
Results (%) IH London
1. IH London
2. Eurocentres OISE* 61 53 Eurocentres 
3. London School of Berlitz 32 23 London
English School of English
= 4 Delfin, St Giles St Giles
= 6 EC, LSC Stanton, LSI London
London Central, Malvern EC
House.
10. Bloomsbury.

Malvern LSI London Central
House
Delfin Bloomsbury BSC
LSC
Stanton Oxford House

Outliers
School Price/h Inspection
Results (%)
English 8 33
studio
Speak up 7 17

Graph 1: Central London schools by value (all data checked as at May 31 2018)
st
A-ABC; B-Avalon; C-Bell London, F-Central School; J-Frances King; L-Kensington Academy; M-Language Link; Q-Mayfair; S-Regent; T-Rose of York;
U-Stafford House; V- St George’s Inter.; X-UK College of English; Y-Victoria school

anguage courses in London are like the one for central London schools school cannot pass inspection if it has more
generally cheaper than in other major (above). You can see the price per hour on the than three needs for improvement noted on
British cities. The median price per horizontal line and the quality, expressed in its inspection report.
Lhour of a short four-week course of percentages, on the vertical line. The normal We also take any need for improvement
between 15 and 20 hours a week is £14, range for prices is between £11 and £24 and from the total number of areas of strength.
according to our research. To establish the percentage we divide the
Over a quarter of all accredited private Not all schools can score by the total number of areas that each
language schools in the UK capital cost be the same quality so school is inspected for. The prices are even
between £7 and £12 an hour, around the cost more confusing.
of a yoga class, and all but three cost less than how do you get the best First we have to find the fees on the
£24 an hour. bang for your buck? website for a four-week general English course
Since, on average, one third of all the fees without any current discount – and if we
on an English language travel package will couldn’t find the fees on the website we didn’t
go straight to the language travel agents who there are four outliers, two below and two include the school. Then we have to add any
sent the student, the school does not have above the normal price range. It’s worth registration fees and costs charged for buying
a high profit margin. But not all schools can noting, both schools above £24 an hour have or renting any course materials.
be the same quality, so how do you get the a maximum class size of four. The next problem is that schools have
best bang for your buck? At the Gazette we Any school above the oblique line different lengths of time for a class – anything
calculate value taking price per sixty minutes represents good value, and the further above between forty and ninety minutes. And since
divided by quality. Quality is measured by the line, the better they are. non EU students must study for a full 15
the numbers of areas of strength the school is Of course the calculation is more complex. hours we have to find the nearest general
awarded by the British Council inspectors. The quality scores, for example, are adjusted English course to that figure for every single
This enables us to create a scattergram to take into account the fact that a language school.
16 July 2018

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