A survey of summer EAP presessional provision
Dr Diana Ridley
Aim: to obtain an overview of current
practice in HE.
Part of the BALEAP tracking working
party activity
Themes to be explored
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the department which offers pre-sessionals
length of summer pre-sessional courses
numbers and types of students
perceptions of pre-sessional provision
types of pre-sessional (generic /specific)
entry requirements
destinations after the pre-sessional
pre-sessional assessment
tracking pre-sessional students
other issues for EAP and pre-sessionals
Who responded?
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Online survey using Survey Monkey
Link sent to BALEAP 85 institutional members
44 usable responses
39 institutions do offer summer pre-sessional
courses
• 5 respondents say they do not, one saying
that the provision is outsourced.
Academic department or central
department
Name of the department offering EAP
pre-sessional courses
20
11
2
2
'English language'
'languages'
'international'
'EAP' or 'academic literacies'
(others didn't respond or put down an individual's name)
Majority refer to English language or
languages and not to EAP or academic
literacies.
Pre-sessional course lengths
Blocks of between 4 and 10 weeks are the most common.
length of pre-sessional course
number of institutions that offer this
length of course
2 weeks
1
4 weeks
14
5 weeks
11
6 weeks
9
8 weeks
11
10 weeks
13
11 weeks
2
12 weeks
8
14 weeks
1
15 weeks
3
18 weeks
1
20 weeks
3
Some numbers
• Number of students attending:
– range 12 to 800
– average 264
– most common 200
• Percentage of students with conditional offers
– range 100% - 15%
– average 81%
– most common 90%
• Postgraduate or undergraduate - majority of courses are
for both UG and PG, but majority of students are PG
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6 institutions offer courses only for UGs; 12 only for PGs; 34 for both
One university has components of the course specifically for either for UGs and PGs.
Another separates the 4 week block into PG, PGR and UG.
One respondent commented that number of UGs is increasing and this is changing class
dynamics
Pre-sessional students do better
'It is almost universally reported by the
University's departments that students from
the summer programme are better equipped
to cope with the student experience than those
coming straight onto a degree programme with
no pre-sessional training. An IELTS 6.5 alone
does not inspire a great deal of confidence.'
Links with future support
(The pre-sessional course) 'functions
as an effective needs analysis
mechanism for further skills
development'.
Feedback from students
'The main feedback from students is that they feel
very much better prepared for their courses in
October than even the home students - they
know their way round the university, they have
written two academic papers, have given videoed
presentations, have had to use the university's eresources, have got to know their departments,
and have also been introduced to the cultural and
social side of the university through the social
programme which is run by a current graduate at
the university.'
Relationship with receiving departments both positive and negative
'Departments are generally very supportive and
many provide a pre-sessional lecture'.
(It is a problem) 'getting sufficient involvement …'
'Departments don't engage with us much as a rule.
No discipline-specific engagement from
departments during pre-sessionals'.
Generic/discipline specific
• More generic than discipline specific presessional courses are offered
• 35 institutions offer generic courses
• 26 institutions offer discipline specific courses
• 16 insitutions offer only generic provision
Examples of variation:
• afternoon teaching is discipline specific
• Final four weeks of the summer provision is discipline
specific.
Discipline specific summer pre-sessionals
Discipline
Number of institutions
offering each one
Business and management
14
Law
8
Science and Engineering
7
Art and design/creative arts
6
Economics and finance
5
Computing
4
Linguistics
4
Social Science and humanities
3
Politics and international relations
2
Medicine
2
Biomedical science
2
Development, media, culture, music, fashion
management, product design, construction, sport science,
human nutrition
1 institution offers each
of these
Challenges of discipline specific provision
'Difficult providing appropriate discipline specific
materials to meet everyone's needs'.
'Discipline specific pathways … are a challenge because
of the wide range of programmes to prepare'.
'Discipline specific works better for some groups than for
others, e.g. accounting and finance quite a coherent
group vs engineering and sciences - rather mixed
subjects here; small numbers … can mean small
classes for one group; tutors teaching across
disciplines (usually two tutors to a class and they stay
with same subject)'.
Entry requirements: a wide array of
different possibilities
• an overall IELTS band requirement or equivalent
• may specify a minimum band in writing (and possibly
reading), either the same as overall band required or half a
band below
• a different IELTS band requirement for different lengths of
pre-sessional course
• a IELTS band requirement related to degree programme
entry requirements (e.g. one band below for a 10 week
course)
• a different IELTS band requirement for different subject
areas; sci and eng may be half a band below.
• a different IELTS band requirement for UG or PG; UGs may
be half a band below
The range of pre-sessional entry requirements
(IELTS band or equivalent)
4 week presessionals or
shorter
5-7 week presessionals
8-10 week presessionals
11-18 week presessionals
no more than 0.5 band below degree
no more than one band below the degree
programme entry req. or same IELTS req. programme entry req. (occasional exceptions)
as degree offer or only accept students
with unconditional offer
majority ask for
bands 6.5 / 7;
sciences - band 6
range of bands 5.5 6.5; majority ask for
bands 6 / 6.5;
science and
engineering - band
5.5
a range of bands 5 - a range of bands 5 6.5; majority ask for 6; majority ask for
bands 5.5 / 6;
band 5.5.
journalism - band
6.5; social sciences,
health, MBA - band
6; sciences - band
5.5
Degree programme destinations
Number of students who stay at the same
university for their degree programme:
• Average: 93%
• Range: 100% - 70%
• Most common: 90%
It is often unknown exactly how many
students go to another university or do not
go onto a degree programme.
Pre-sessional assessment - a wide variety of
combinations of the following
Type of assessment
Number of institutions that use this
Internally assessed project
30
continuous assessment (e.g. a portfolio)
27
internal end of course exam
30
external exam (e.g. IELTS)
2
automatic progression (assessment is
formative; attendance on the presessional is the only requirement)
2
Assessment continued (two examples)
Example 1:
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group presentation - 30%
extended essay - 30%
summative tests - 30%
independent learning portfolio - 10%
Example 2:
– Demonstrating 'can do' statements by completing the following: a
poster presentation, a mini lecture, a synthesised summary and
plagiarism awareness test.
Tracking activity
19 institutions can use central IT systems for
tracking (only 2 gave examples of how)
Use of 'Banner' system to track students and
their results on follow-on degree programmes
24 institutions are doing some tracking (mainly
small scale and informal)
One example
'I have set up a tracking process so that we
know how many students at the university
have English as a Second Language, how
many attend our classes …and tutorials,
which of those took the pre-sessional with us
and how they progress in their degrees.'
The BALEAP tracking working party approximately 10 active projects
Both qualitative and quantitative approaches
• tracking student results
• student and staff perceptions of the value of the
pre-sessional course
• innovation, adoption and impact of the reading
and writing components of the pre-sessional
course
• development of source use and awareness of
plagiarism
Issues mentioned
• Status of the EAP unit - academic / service /
support / central
• The EAP unit may be poorly resourced in
terms of FT staff
• Difficulty of finding enough qualified staff over
the summer period especially with discipline
specific expertise
• Students arriving late due to visa problems
• Visa issues and progression
Further issues
• Accommodation and suitable classrooms
• Range of language proficiency levels even
amongst students who all have IELTS 5.5
• One nationality may predominate
• Debate over the university entry requirements
for degree programmes; admissions tutors
and lecturers on degree programmes may not
fully appreciate what can be expected from a
student with IELTS 6 /6.5