The British Council Accreditation Scheme is probably the best known scheme for reporting on quality in language schools in the world. The UK was at the forefront of a voluntary accreditation scheme for private language schools – originally the government directly ran the scheme (as the Department for Education) until the British Council took over the scheme in the early 1980s. The process is still voluntary, but following some major changes to the visa situation in the UK which were introduced last April (2009) it has effectively become impossible to operate a language school in the UK without being accredited. It is only as an accredited school that you can now be one on the UKBA (UK Government) list of sponsors, and it is only possible to issue documentation where students can apply for student visas by being on the list of sponsors. So you can see how important it is to be accredited.

The actual accreditation scheme covers all the aspects of running a language school – the inspections are carried out at least every 4 years and in between inspections schools are expected to provide information and make sure they follow the regulations. There are 3 main areas in the inspection – Management, teaching and Learning, Welfare and Student Services. If you are interested you can look at the BC website and see the detailed inspection criteria.

We think that what is really important about the scheme is that it sets a standard. It is very difficult to compare different schools – for example trying to compare a small school in a country town to a big school in the middle of London is not easy but at least withthe BC Accreditation scheme you can be sure that some things will be guaranteed – for example teachers will have  minimum qualifications, the school is managed in a professional way, the publicity describing the school is fair and accurate, the premises are safe and suitable for the kinds of activities. It also guarantees that if a student or an agent has a problem with the school that there is a mechanism for complaints and for guaranteeing that these are looked at seriously. During the inspection there will be at least 2 inspectors who will watch all the teachers, visit accommodation and talk to all the management and admin staff in the school. UIC has 2 accreditations – one for the main school in London and also a separate one for our summer school for teenagers and children. Even though it is not necessary for our summer school (none of the courses are longer than 3 weeks!) we choose to be a part of the scheme as we feel it gives not only the public a guarantee of quality but helps us to focus on being as good as we can. In addition to the BC, UIC is also a member of English UK which is the association for language schools (both private and public) in the UK and which offers further guarantees to students and support. English UK says ” English UK is the world’s leading language teaching association with more than 400 members – all accredited by the British Council – including private language schools, educational trusts and charities and language centres in further education colleges and universities.”

So, if you are interested in quality you need look no further than the accreditations and memberships that UIC has. We are:

Accredited by the British Council (both centres)

A member of English UK (both centres)

UK Border Agency Sponsor – number FPVW2PXQ3

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at 9:28 am and is filed under Learning English, Summer schools for children and teens, UIC London. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.