Page 15 - ELG2109 Sep Issue 477

Top 100 UK Language Centres
Top centres more Contents

TOP 100 FOR 2021
likely to survive Covid 16
How we calculate our rankings
Melanie Butler analyses the rankings
and finds our top 100 are weathering 17
SCHOOL RANKINGS
the pandemic well The list, plus explanatory key

The main difference in this year’s ranking is not the number
of new entrants in the top 100, but the number whose
CHAIN SCHOOLS
names have disappeared from the list of accredited centres 21
during the pandemic. A total of 11 centres no longer have Covid’s impact on this sector
accreditation, just under 9% of the 2020 total and well
below the 15% drop in number among accredited language
centres as a whole.
Overall language centres that score highly on their British 22
BOARDING SCHOOLS
Council inspections seem more likely to survive, which is good What exactly are they?
news. While the private language schools have been badly
hit this year, only a very small percentage of those in the top
100 have been affected and none at all in the top 5% of our
ranking. Only three year-round language schools and one THE UNIVERSITY RANKINGS
chain-owned summer operation have disappeared from our
list, though. Sadly, all but one, which is currently teaching Higher education’s place in the
online, have ceased to trade. 24 scheme of things
However, the list of EL Gazette Centres of Excellence
which are no longer accredited includes three universities
and two boarding schools: the two highest performing NORTHERN STARS
sectors, as we report on pages 22 to 25. None of these, A group of universities that
unsurprisingly, have closed for business and neither has 25 shine bright
the one further education college which no longer appears.
These are all sectors which are already accredited as
MASTER’S OFFERINGS
educational institutions and have simply opted out of British 26
Council inspections. Who offers what
But while the boarding school sector has been growing
in recent years, and at least one more is waiting to be
accredited, numbers among universities appear to be in slow
decline. Fifteen percent of the universities previously in the
accreditation scheme have dropped out in the past year, most Every effort has been made to verify the information in the
likely as a result of Covid cutbacks, but perhaps influenced, following rankings table. All the information in it has been based
as we argue on page 22, by the mismatch between the on the Summary Statements of the British Council Inspection
methodology demanded by the inspectors and the skills and Reports as of 1/9/21.
language knowledge required by international schools being
prepared for their degree course.
The good news from the university sector, reported on page
24, is that in one region of the UK, the north of England,
there is a cluster of universities which, despite the loss of two
of their number, continue to dominate the inspection results
in their sector. Could this cluster of excellence be helped by
the long collaboration with other English language sectors
in their region? In a further exploration of the cluster of
excellence idea, on page 26 we look at how it would play out
for another university offering: Master’s courses for teachers,
not a sector we can easily rank ourselves, though there is
plenty of evidence from other sources. And here we find
a cluster in the Midlands, both East and West, which has
surprisingly few language schools though a fair few accredited
state colleges.
Finally, talking of clusters of excellence, many of the chain
schools show a pattern of consistently high accreditation
results. While the top scores still belong to the three UK
schools owned and operated by The
English Language Centre Brighton,
among the larger international players,
EC has taken top spot. Turn to page 21
22
to find out how the others have done. 22
MELANIE BUTLER,
EDITOR IN CHIEF
editorial@elgazette.com 15