Southampton leads in helping students master English online :: Wessex Scene Online

Southampton leads in helping students master English online

3rd April 2003

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UKeU, the UK government-backed company set up to provide online degrees from UK universities to students worldwide, has announced a collaboration with the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) to provide a comprehensive series of modules in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) to be delivered through the UKeU Learning Environment. Led by Southampton, WUN's UK universities (Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, Southampton and York) will develop course materials and provide online tuition through a wholly-owned subsidiary, Southampton World Learning Limited.

The modules will give students an excellent preparation for the study of programmes in a wide range of disciplines provided by UKeU. They will provide education in English language and related academic and communication skills for students for whom English is not their mother tongue, and will be tailored to support students' learning in the academic area of their degree programme. Initially, modules will be developed to support programmes in the areas of Business and Management, Computer Science and IT, Health and the Environment.

Created for students whose level of competence in the English language is good but insufficient for Master's level study, the first modules will be aimed at postgraduate students. In the future, complementary modules will also be developed for students embarking on undergraduate studies with UKeU.

The modules will be in line with National Qualifications Framework, which is the subject benchmark statement for languages and related studies, and will be part of the WUN-wide Quality Assurance framework. Students successfully completing the course will be eligible to begin postgraduate studies in their specialist area. They will receive a Certificate of Completion and a detailed transcript of the levels they have attained.

Professor Mike Kelly, Director of the E-Languages consortium, said: 'We are excited to be working with UKeU in the provision of these English language modules. We have identified English language as one of the key market segments for the provision of eLearning, particularly in the Far East. I know we will be of real help to those students who need to raise their English language to a higher level and develop more advanced academic study skills. Our modules will run on UKeU's Learning Environment. UKeU will be responsible for marketing them, and as more programmes are brought online by UKeU, we will create new modules in EAP to support them.'

Shortly to follow will be an online Masters in Geographic Information Systems being developed jointly between the universities of Leeds and Southampton (with Penn State University from our US partners) to be marketed by the UKeU. Professor David Martin, Department of Geography, is leading the initiative for Southampton.

A JISC/NSF funded project to bring geographical data sets to the University classroom has just begun. It is led by Dr Hugh Davis, Department of Electronics and Computer Science, Professor David Martin, Geography, and Professor Grainne Conole, RGSE with colleagues at the University of Leeds, Penn State, and the University of California at Santa Barbara. The University will also be involved with all UK WUN partners in delivering a project to develop teachers in all sectors of the Chinese education system to teach English and to teach their subjects in English, in addition to evaluating their pedagogical models.