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UK Language centres
Academic

Achievers

University language centres consistently FRANCISCO OSORIO
perform well, Melanie Butler reports
University of Manchester
niversities love statistics, so they will be delighted to know
that the inspection results for British Council accredited Top 10 University Centres
university language centres show a symmetric distribution
Upattern. 1 University of Manchester
In plain English, this means their results group neatly together in a University of Liverpool
familiar bell curve, which indicates consistency. Their mean average
result is eight net areas of strength, once areas needing improvement = 2 Edge Hill University, Ormskirk
have been deducted. Eight is the most common score and half of all University of Brighton
university language centres score eight or above.
By contrast, the distribution of scores for the industry as a whole are 5 King’s College, London
skewed by a group of under-performers. The industry mean average is 6 University of Leicester
four, but the most common result is three net strengths.
Only two accredited universities score below three and only six out 7 University College London
of 41 score below the national mean average of five.
Universities make up less than one in twenty of accredited providers Aberystwyth University, Wales
but there are two university language centres, Manchester and = 8 Brunel University, London
Liverpool, in the national top two per cent, with three more: Edge Hill, Leeds Beckett University
Brighton and King’s College London hard on their heels.

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