Page 16 - ELG2009 Sep Issue 472

UK RANKINGS 2020-21 . UK LANGUAGE CENTRES

In the front ranks Contents

National Manager UK College University Across all sectors, the UK’s language 18 SIMPLE STATEMENT
Department

How we calculate the top
standards are rising, so we drill down to
IELTS
25 per cent of centres
differentiate, says Melanie Butler

There are only five new Centres of Excellence. Our congratulations to the Christian 19
t is a September, nine months into a pandemic, and on a first glance at our Centre of
Excellence listings (pages 19-22), you may be struck by how little has changed since our
Brazil Language English Japan Ministry Ilast listings in March. EXCELLENCE 2020
Centres of Excellence
Rector
2020 listings
Senior Spain Agency Faculty English Language Centre, Loxdale English Centre, New College Durham and the
Universities of Dundee and Salford. Congratulations, too, to the University of Sheffield,
Turkey Russia Professor Argentina which has zoomed up the rankings and is now neck and neck with Edge Hill University as STAY WITH THE KIDS
joint third position university language centre.
Alex Cann on IH London
ELT State teacher Director the British Council had completed just 17 inspections in 2020, according to our records, 23 Young Learners
The lack of movement is not surprising. Before UK centres closed at the end of March,

and fewer than 50 since September 2019.
Only two Centres of Excellence have left the accreditation scheme. One, the London
Trainer China Lecturer School of English in Canterbury, has been forced to close. The other, the University JUNIOR SUPERSTARS
Drilling down into the data
Language Centre at UCL, is certainly still operating but has opted out of accreditation.
Look carefully, though and you will notice that there is a whole swathe of schools and 24 sector by sector
colleges which are no longer listed as Centres of Excellence: those that received eight
areas of strength on their last inspection. Our commiserations: their results have not
fallen, but their percentile ranking has dropped as more centres have overtaken them.
Our new Centres of Excellence listing covers the top 25 per cent of centres, based on SUMMER EXTENSION
Mike Pengelly looks to take
British Council Inspection reports and, as things stand in September 2020, that only 27 St Edmund’s into new areas
? inspectors’ judgements. It also means that there are more centres clustered at the same
includes centres awarded nine areas of strength or more.
This means that standards in British EFL are rising, based on the British Council
Who reads the The British Council had accredited centres, for example, 29 by putting safety first
high scores – five per cent of all
BUBBLE POWER
BEC builds back better
score nine net areas of strength.
So, how can we differentiate
completed just 17
The first obvious move is to split
inspections in 2020, them?
away those who focus on under-16s
according to our records, – can we really compare universities
and fewer than 50 since and junior summer schools? Since
providers running more than one
September 2019. off-site junior summer school must
now accredit their junior centres
separately, this is fairly easy to do.
But surely a top provider will be equally good with adults and young learners? The
statistics disagree – on average, a junior programme will have four fewer areas of strengths
than an adult centre with the same owner.
Under-16s need a very different approach, as Alex Cann, new head of Young Learners
at International House London explains on page 23. 29
Once we separate out the Young Learners operations, we can drill down into the details
in their reports and use them to differentiate between centres with the same number of
areas of strength (see pages 24 and 25) using the system we first introduced in March.
With Young Learners, that means focussing on welfare and safety. Indeed, in the era of
Covid-19, making sure children are safe means rethinking nearly everything we do, as ON TOP FOR
BEC’s Chris McDermott explains on page 29. OVER-18s
With courses for adults, however, we focus more on the academic side, as you can see 30 Focussing on the factors
in our rankings, starting on page 31.
To drill down even more, we have divided each age group ranking by types of provider. that impact adults
For adults, we compare the outcomes of the private sector with those of state sector
universities and colleges. While for juniors, we compare the boarding schools with the
other private sector providers. STATE SECTOR
Once again, the boarding schools are our top performers, but to judge from Mike STARS
Pingelly’s plans for St Edmunds College English language summer schools, on page 26, 31 Which HE and FE excel
this is not the only area they plan to dominate.
In a time of uncertainty, we cannot say which of our Centres of Excellence will be listed
next year, but the early signs suggest the young learner sector, with its lower year-round
overheads, are already planning to expand. PERFECTLY
PRIVATE
MELANIE BUTLER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
32 Who’s at the top for adults
16 September 2020 editorial@elgazette.com 17