Select Committee on Home Affairs Additional Written Evidence


8.  Memorandum submitted by the British Council

  The British Council is the UK's organisation for international cultural relation and educational opportunities. We are an integral part of the UK's public diplomacy effort overseas and our work supports and complements the diplomatic, developmental and commercial work carried out by other UK organisations and agencies. We have a network of 217 offices in 110 countries.

Through the management of the Prime Minister's Initiative on recruitment of fee-paying students from overseas and the Education UK partnership we promote the UK as a study destination for international students. We provide information for prospective students planning to come to the UK including information on appropriate visa procedures. This is worth over £6 billion to the UK economy. We work with partners such as the Home Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth office, Department for Education and Skills, UKvisas, UKTI, UKOSA, Universities UK, Association of Colleges, English UK, Visit Britain, National Union of Students, the Standing Conference of Principals and a number of other representative bodies.

The DfES register, introduced in January 2005, has gone some way to addressing the abuse of the immigration control system for students and this regulatory initiative for the English language sector, particularly, is welcomed by the British Council. There remain concerns, however, that the register is not sufficient on its own and that compulsory accreditation of providers through a single national accreditation scheme is desirable and required.

All providers accredited under the English in Britain Accreditation Scheme are automatically entered on the DfES register under the category "BritishCouncil EiBAS" and the British Council ensures that the list for this category is accurately maintained. The British Council manages the Scheme, which will be know as Accreditation UK from 1 April 2006, in partnership with English UK the UK's English language teaching sector's national, professional association. The Scheme is voluntary at present and with 397 accredited providers, holds substantial market share of this sector in the UK. It is the world's most established, largest scheme of its kind and the high quality standards of the Scheme ensure that the UK is well placed in the global language travel and education marketplace to maintain the international reputation of the UK's provision of English language teaching.

Accreditation under this Scheme ensures both the authenticity of English language providers required by immigration control and the quality assurance required by students.

Providers who come forward for accreditation under the Scheme must meet eligibility criteria and are rigorously and fully inspected every four years, with unannounced interim visits in between full inspections. They are inspected against a comprehensive set of criteria covering Management, Resources and environment, Teaching and learning and Welfare and student services. More information and details of the Scheme, including eligibility, is available on the dedicated accreditation site, www.britishcouncil.org/accreditation . Information about the inspection criteria is also available in the annual Scheme handbook which is available on the website at www.britishcouncil.org/accreditation-handbook

The criteria in the "Administration of Students" section clearly demonstrate how the Scheme works with UK English language providers to ensure immigration control systems for students are in place and to minimise the risk of abuse. Providers must give evidence of compliance with the criteria and do so through provision of documents and records to the inspection team. These include registers, attendance records and records of follow up action, policy documents of student absences, enrolment documentation, staff handbooks, records of student contact details and publicity materials.

Fiona Pape

Manager English Language Quality Services

28 February 2006



 
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