UK announces approved accreditation bodies

Language schools and other educational institutions wishing to enrol student visa holders will have to be accredited by either Accreditation UK, The British Accreditation Council (BAC) or the Accreditation Service for International Colleges (ASIC) from 2009, according to an announcement by the UK government earlier this year. The new requirement is part of the introduction of the Points Based System for managed migration (see Language Travel Magazine, October 2006, page 6).

When the system is introduced, international students applying for a visa will have to show that they will be studying at a school listed on the Home Office sponsor’s register. State education institutions will be exempt from this requirement but private schools and colleges will have to show that they have been accredited by .

Tony Millns, Chief Executive for English UK, which runs the Accreditation UK scheme in partnership with the British Council, said, “This is an excellent move which will protect the UK’s international reputation for quality in education. It is particularly welcome that for the English language sector, the government has endorsed Accreditation UK. This accreditation is recognised globally as the gold standard and the original mark of quality for language courses.”

Another English language school accreditation scheme, the Accreditation Body for Language Services, was not included on the approved list of accreditation providers released in July. Diana Lowe, Chairperson of the Association of British Language Schools, which administers the accreditation scheme, said that she expected the scheme to be approved by the Home Office at a later date. “It isn’t that we’ve been excluded,” she said. “We’ve been in talks with Ofsted and are waiting for them to accompany one of our inspectors. We welcome the whole concept. There is room for lots of accreditation bodies.”

While Accreditation UK and the BAC are well known among those in the international education industry, ASIC is a newcomer to the business of accreditation. Maurice Dimmock, Chief Executive of ASIC, said that they had only accredited one college so far, Kensington College of Business, in conjunction with Ofsted as part of the Home Office approval process. “ASIC is a new accrediting body and has been formed to give a rigorous and transparent accreditation service,” he said.

Dimmock is also Chairperson of Qisan, an association of agents and education providers. Last year, a report in Language Travel Magazine revealed that Qisan was already issuing certificates of accreditation to education institutions and agents, but declined to provide details of its inspection process (see Language Travel Magazine, June 2006, page 7). Millns from Accreditation UK said that he did not see how the ASIC could gain approval from the Home Office when they had not accredited any institutions. However, he added, “There must be a way to allow new accreditation organisations to set themselves up.”

A spokesperson from Universities UK said, “These new arrangements should strengthen the reputation of the UK as a high quality education destination but obviously the Home Office and Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) will wish to monitor all the accreditation bodies closely as they work with education institutions in their part of the sector.”

First English village for Taiwan

Taiwan’s first English village was due to open in September this year, catering for elementary and high school students wanting a complete immersion experience in the English language.

The Global Happy English Village is the brainchild of the King Car Education Foundation and is based on similar projects that have been set up in South Korea and Japan in recent years. Students will be able to visit the English medium village on one-day, two-day, and five-day programmes and will be completely immersed in the English language during their visit.

Morgan Sun, General Director of King Car Education Foundation, an organisation that promotes the study of English in Taiwan, said at a press conference launching plans for the village, “The purpose of the English village is aimed at boosting students’ interest in learning English and to help them speak English with confidence. I was totally surprised by the achievement of the English villages in South Korea.” He added that after his visit, “I instantly decided to set one up in Taiwan.”

The English village has been planned and the curriculum developed by the Taoyuan County Government and National Taipei University of Technology and will consist of three floors of classrooms. A local airline is donating a Boeing aeroplane to put on the first floor of the school so that students have to disembark from the plane and go through a customs checkpoint before entering the classrooms. The village will also feature a post office, a hotel lounge and other real-life locations where students will get to practice their English in every- day situations.

A new visa allowing Japanese and Irish students the chance to work and study in each other’s countries for up to one year has had a positive effect on the language travel industry, according to schools and agents.

The working holiday visa, which came into effect in January, allows young people in Japan and Ireland between the ages of 18 and 25 years to study at a language school, while also being able to take up full-time work for periods of up to three months with one employer. Yuko Shimizu from Ireland Ryugaku Club in Japan said that they have already noticed an increase in bookings for language travel programmes. “Since the introduction of the working holi

day authorisation between Ireland and Japan, the number of our clients has been steadily increasing. We expect positive future [growth] for the next 12 months,” added Shimizu.

In the first year of the scheme, 400 authorisations will be issued to Japanese applicants by the Irish government and given out each quarter. Applicants not successful the first time they apply will be able to apply for the visa again as many times as they like.

Jonathan Quinn from CES Swandean in Dublin said that the school has seen bookings from Japanese students increase by seven per cent since the new visa was introduced this year. “It is obviously very beneficial for any students coming to study English for a long period of time that they now have a means to generate some additional pocket money to help with the overall costs of their stay,” he said. “There is also the added benefit the students get by working in Dublin and experiencing ‘the craic’ first-hand. It is also a great way to make new friends outside the school environment.”

The working holiday visa programme was launched last year by the Japanese and Irish governments in order to celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The French government has launched a campaign to promote French language learning in time for the rugby world cup. The campaign, called “Oui je parle rugby”, is aimed at encouraging some of the 300,000 expected visitors to learn a few essential phrases before they arrive in the country.
   The French Foreign and European Affairs Minister, Bernard Kouchner, the Health Youth and Sports Minister, Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, and the President of the French Rugby Federation and World Cup organising committee, Bernard Lapasset, launched the campaign in July in recognition of the fact that the Rugby World Cup is being held in a French speaking country for the first time this year. Kouchner said at a press conference, “This rugby celebration will be, in no doubt, a French celebration in all its colours, a celebration of the French speaking world that shows the richness and vitality of our language.”

The campaign consists of a French survival kit – a booklet written in French, English and Spanish featuring essential phrases for getting around France and a match schedule – a film presenting 12 international players talking about their relationship with the French language and a method of teaching French based around rugby called “French in the scrum”.

Eleri Maitland from French in Normandy in Rouen said that the rugby tournament had so far not affected bookings at the school. “Our student numbers have been constant this year. We have not had an influx of students due to the world cup. We find that with events of this kind there is usually a knock-on effect a year later,” she said.