Page 15 - ELG2001 Jan Issue 468

El•Gazette 468.qxp_El•Gazette 468 08/01/2020 15:57 Page 15

DESTINATION

Bang for your bucks: best value London schools

Melanie Butler explains how to get the best course for your money

Below the best value line: A - Speakeasy; B - Speak up; C - Mayfair; D - ABC; E - Edwards; F - Golders Green; G - Ingla; H - Burlington; I - Language Link; J - Nacel; K -
Rose of York; L - Bayswater; M - Bloomsbury; N - LSI Hampstead; O - Milner; P - St George’s; Q - BSC; R - Stafford House; S - Regent; T - Bell; U - Central School of English;

he graph on this page shows the value same length of time, at the same time of year schools that enrol students who live in their
for money for language schools in - and a note of any hidden extra costs like areas, and only for a few hours a week, were
London which offer the same type of breakfast. excluded. It’s worth noting that centres such
Tgeneral English course for adults. With language schools, it should be the as the Central School, whose course hours
Schools to the left of and above the mean most popular kind of course. For over 16s, include things like lectures and guided self-
value line, the oblique line which divides the that is general English, and the average study, which don’t count as course hours, are
graph in two, are good value. The further they length is three weeks. So, we focused our at a disadvantage in this metric.
are away from the line, the better the value. search on three-week courses starting in Next, the price. Many schools, including
Central London schools are marked in red, January. This excluded courses in universities some of the big chains, simply don’t publish
schools in the London villages, the wealthy and state colleges because, outside the any prices at all. You have to e-mail them for
residential areas, are marked in green. summer, most only offer courses lasting a ten- a quote or phone their sales office. All these
Calculating the best value for money week term. were excluded.
should be pretty simple: divide the cost of the Finally, we had to establish extra charges,
product you are buying by its quality. Calculating the best specifically registration fees and charges for
With some products, there is an books. Some schools don’t include any
established quality metric. Hotels, for value for money should be information about registration fees – though
example, are scored by hotel inspectors, using pretty simple: divide the 99 per cent of schools charge them and they
the five-star method. Similarly, UK- can add up to £2 an hour to the cost of a 45-
accredited language schools are scored by cost of the product you are hour course. Others are vague on the price of
British Council Inspectors, who award a books. We made two phone calls to each
number of strengths and note any needs for buying by its quality. school to get the missing information, but in
improvement. The British Council publishes half a dozen cases, including one global
the full results for each school on its website. To get a visa, however, students must study chain, nobody could provide a clear answer.
There may be aspects of quality that with a teacher for 15 hours a week. But most It is so hard to get the price out of many
inspectors miss, friendliness, for example, but schools quote prices by the number of language schools that 80 per cent of 18-24
at least they are all judged on the same lessons, not the number of hours, and a year-olds start out looking for a language
standards. lesson can range from 45 minutes to 90 course on the net, and end up booking
Next is price. For a hotel, we need the cost minutes long. So, we had to count the through a travel agent, which adds up to 40
per night, of the same kind of room, for the number of taught hours. Some smaller ‘local’ per cent to the cost.
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