Page 25 - ELG2109 Sep Issue 477

Top 100 UK Language Centres
Northern stars

Co-operation is the secret to the PHOTO BY SHUTTERSTOCK
success of universities in the north

of England, says Melanie Butler

ake a look at the three top universities in the rankings. What
do they have in common? We have Manchester in first spot,
then Sheffield and Edge Hill, which was recently declared
TModern University of the Year in The Sunday Times.
All three of them are located in northern England, or ‘the North’, and English language tests run by NCUK, set up by a consortium of
as it is more commonly known. Manchester is east of the Pennine northern universities and now accepted by other universities around
Mountains, as is Edge Hill in nearby Ormskirk, while Sheffield is to the the world.
west in the historic county of Yorkshire. For over 30 years, many of the region’s universities joined an
In the same city lies Sheffield Hallam University, one of the UK’s association, then called English in the North, which included local
largest and most diverse universities, as well as a stalwart of the further education colleges and private language schools. This cross-
Gazette rankings. Meanwhile, in the next-door city to Manchester, sectoral cooperation, originally designed to attract students from the
is the University of Salford. Both make it into our top university tourist hotspots in the south, has grown to create an environment
language centres. offering ‘English courses for everybody’, where students with a low
In fact, if we add in the universities of Leeds, Teeside and Manchester level of English study in a language school before joining a university
Metropolitan, all of which appear in our top 100 listing, then an pre-sessional course, while others take a foundation year in a local
astonishing 73% of all the accredited universities in the region are EL college before starting their undergraduate degree.
Gazette Centres of Excellence, based on their inspection results. It’s perhaps not surprising that co-operation is at the root of
The region, which runs from north of the Humber estuaries to the the success of the northern universities’ language centres and the
border of North Wales and up to Scotland, has long been famous for its development of the region into a premier student destination. After all,
in 1844 the Co-operative was founded in a little town called Rochdale
universities and, in particular, the way they have always co-operated EHU TESOL 2021 93mmx135mm.qxp_Layout 1 19/08/2021 14:38 Page 1
with each other. This is exemplified by the pathway programmes in the north of England.

MA TESOL &

Advanced Professional
Certificate in Teaching EAP

The Language
Centre

MA Teaching English to Speakers
of Other Languages (TESOL)

1 year full-time, 2 years part time (face to face)
1 year full-time (online)
Available from September 2021
This UK-based Masters degree will develop existing skills to enable you to teach English
to speakers of other languages around the world and contribute to the changing world of
Widen your range of career options in international English language education.

Phone For more information and details on entry requirements, please contact
English language teaching and EAP. The Language Centre on 01695 657188, email efl@edgehill.ac.uk
or visit our website at: ehu.ac.uk/tesol

For the latest course information, visit
www.shu.ac.uk/prospectus

For more information and details on entry search Edge HIll
requirements, please contact The Tesol
Centre on +44 (0)114 225 2222 or email
tesol@shu.ac.uk.
editorial@elgazette.com 25