Page 20 - ELG1903 Mar-Apr Issue 464

IATEFL special .

Northern VITA STUDENT

delights

The Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral as viewed through
stained glass.

As the North of England welcomes
Iatefl 2019, Melanie Butler puts
this ELT region on the agenda

“A collection of northern cities “But there are two reasons
sufficiently close to each other students here know the names
that combined they can take of so many Northern cities,” one
on the world.” This is the way Middle Eastern agent told me,
then-British Chancellor, George “the universities and the football
Osborne, described his pet teams.”
political project: the Northern English language and football
Powerhouse. courses are among the most
In terms of international popular courses in the region.
education, and especially English ABLE Manchester, LILA in
language education, the North Liverpool and the Northumbria
has indeed become a powerhouse, school of English near Newcastle
whatever has become of Osborne are among the schools that offer
or his project in the maelstrom them.
that is Brexit. But the North’s reputation for
The North of England has been international education has been
the fastest-growing destination led by the region’s universities.
for English language learners More than thirty years ago, a
over the last decade or more, Consortium of 12 universities
according to English UK, and across the north of England
language centres in Manchester set up an educational charity,
now outperform those in Northern Consortium UK
London, based on British Council (NCUK), to develop foundation
inspection reports. Indeed, the year programmes to be delivered
region as a whole boasts top by partner colleges overseas.
performers across the range of Students who passed the course
The Language
Centre
accredited sectors: language were guaranteed a place at one of
schools like English in Chester; the partner universities, in what
summer school operators like was probably the world’s first
SBC; FE Colleges, like Sheffield pathway programme. NCUK,
College; and boarding schools, which now includes universities
like Stonyhurst and Windermere. across the UK, played an
The region boasts three of the important role in creating a profile
top four accredited University for the region’s universities.
MA Teaching English to Speakers
of Other Languages (TESOL) languages: Manchester, Liverpool These days, northern
and Edgehill. Some 25 per cent universities are big players in
of all accredited universities in transnational education, setting
1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
the UK are in the region. Perhaps up campuses across the world,
Available from September 2019
not coincidentally, the North is including Newcastle University
also one of only two parts of the in Malaysia, University of
This UK-based Masters degree will develop existing skills to enable you to teach United Kingdom to boast its own Sunderland in Hong Kong and
English to speakers of other languages around the world and to contribute to the
changing world of international English language education. IATEFL affiliate, NATESOL. UCLan in Cyprus.
The other one is Scotland. For English Language Teaching,
For more information and details on entry requirements, please contact
The Language Centre on 01695 657188, email efl@edgehill.ac.uk So, what makes the North a though, it was the emergence
or visit our website at: ehu.ac.uk/tesol great educational destination? of an association of language
Quality of life is high on the centres, English in the North,
list for many foreign students, some twenty years ago that

as is the regions’ lower cost of began to put the region on to the
living according to international ELT map. Started by legendary
search Edge HIll agents. language school owner Richard
20 March/April 2019