BME Director's Report 2010

English for International Students Unit Business Management English Presessional ProgrammeDirector’s Report 2010

Centre for Learning and Academic Development

BME Director’s Report 2010

BME Presessional Programme

BME Director’s Report 2010 2


Initialisms 3

Background 4

Key Developments in 2010 5

Developments to Reflect BC Recommendations 5

BME Staff - Coordinators 6

The Teaching Team 7

Quality Assurance Observations 8

Professional Development 8

Language Support 9

Course Secretary & Clerical Team 9

Student Data 10

Countries of Origin & Student Profile 10

BME Students' Programme Destinations 11

Curriculum & Materials 12

BME Learning Agreement 12

Guest Lecture Programme 13

Booster Weeks 14

The Project - A Feasibility Report 15

Assessment & Results 16

EISU Social Programme 17

Course Evaluation - Staff Feedback 18

Student Feedback 19

Collaboration Across the University 20

UoB Strategic Framework & Future of the BME 21

Concluding Comments 22

BBS Birmingham Business School

BC British Council

BME Business Management English

CAS Certificate of Acceptance of Studies

EAP English for Academic Purposes

EFL English as a Foreign Language

EISU English for International Students Unit

ESP English for Specific Purposes

GDBA Graduate Diploma in Business Administration

IELTS International English Language Testing System

ISAS International Student Advisory Service

iVLE Interactive Virtual Learning Environment

LRAT Learning Resources Accommodation Team

MBA Masters in Business Administration

MI Managing Information

PDP Personal Development Portfolio

TAMU Teaching Accommodation Management Unit

TEFL Teaching English as a Foreign Language

TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language

UKBA United Kingdom Border Agency

UoB University of Birmingham

Initialisms

Contents



UoB

Corpora te Se rvic es

Acade mic Service s

Centre for Lea rning & Aca demic Deve lopment

E nglish for International S tude nts U nit

Busine ss M anageme nt E nglish P res ess ional P rogramme

The Business Management English (BME) Presessional is a preparatory academic skills and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) pro-gramme which was established in 2001 for students about to embark on degree courses at the Birmingham Business School (BBS). It is a British Council (BC) accredited and University Senate approved programme. All conditional offers issued to MBA, MSc and GDBA students by the BBS are premised on the students achieving an appropriate English language test result in IELTS/TOEFL, or, suc-cessful completion of the BME Presessional. The BBS and the BME have both raised their entry requirements over the past two years.

"…A series of academic lessons, fantastic day-trips, and teamwork across cultures stimulated me to discover a pleasurable and colourful life in the UK: The warmth, encouragement and support which I gained from the BME course made me feel confident to prepare for my future postgraduate course..."

Ya-Ting Ji 15-week student from Taiwan

Background

From 2011, students wanting to study for a Masters degree in Business Administration, Marketing, or Human Resource Management at the University will need to achieve the equivalent* of IELTS 7.0 for entry to the BBS. The BME is available in four course lengths: 20-, 15-, 10- and 6-weeks. The programme is divided into two ten-week blocks with a reading (non-teaching) week in July. * The minimum final summative scores required on the BME range from 40% to 60%, and depend on students’ future programme of study. Those who fail the BME cannot retake IELTS/TOEFL at the end of the course as an alternative route of entry to their departmental studies.

Figure 1: BME in the UoB Structure



A number of changes took place on the BME Presessional in 2010; many were reflective of a natural cycle of progression, while some were implemented as a result of specific feedback received from BME staff and students in 2009. The key developments included:

The recruitment of three Language Sup-port Teachers to offer additional, targeted support to students

Greater collaboration with the BBS leading to informed decision-making in BME course design, particularly assessments

The creation of a Plagiarism Database (made available to Business School Pro-gramme Directors upon request)

The weighting of assessments to reflect the time, length and complexity of the writ-ten tasks set on the BME

The PDP reflective writing task (first trialled in 2009) being weighted as 10% of the final summative score

The reinforcement of the importance of academic integrity through talks by the University’s Academic Conduct Officer

Workshops run by the International Stu-dent Advisory Service (ISAS) to guide BME students through the process of visa renewals/extensions & assistance on form-completion and submission to the UKBA

A greater number of Managing Information sessions led by Business Specialists from Library Services to offer assistance on handling business databases/resources

The introduction of topics like business ethics and group-work in multi-cultural teams, along with seven new case studies

An exploration of listening micro-skills options, and a test-run of selected chap-ters for a future BME Listening Handbook

The introduction of intensive, non-teaching Booster Weeks at two stages of the pro-gramme

A record 34% increase in student numbers on the 15-, 10- and 6-week BME courses combined

Key Developments in 2010

In their most recent inspection of EISU pro-grammes (2008), the BC commended the Unit on the quality of its provision. In particular, EISU’s Presessionals were said to embody four areas of excellence, namely: outstanding course design, impressive course management, quality materials and enhanced student experi-ence & welfare.

A number of suggestions were made regarding ways in which the programmes could be further strengthened. The following changes are re-flective of these recommendations:

Developments to Reflect British Council Recommendations

The creation of Risk Assessment, Emer-gency Contacts, EISU Registration and Complaints forms

A Fire Drill during each course

Employment of staff with diploma-level teaching qualifications and the upgrading of existing staff to the required level in time for the next inspection in 2012

Inclusion of a section in the Student/Teacher Handbooks which highlights the conditions under which students may be asked to leave the course



“…The teaching staff were so helpful and have a high level of knowledge, and they understand the differences between cultural customs and tradi-tions. With this, they dealt with different situa-tions skilfully…”

Bdriya Hijazi 15-week student from Saudi Arabia

All but two personnel were recruited on casual engagements, or on a fixed-term contractual basis on BME 2010.

BME Staff

Coordinators

Despite knowing that their absence would leave a void in the teaching team, in light of their experience and past performances on the Presessional, the newly created role of Senior Coordinators was offered to former BME teach-ing staff, Jennifer Metcalfe and Mike Loughlin. Jennifer and Mike exceeded all expectations: Their professionalism and commitment to this role was evidenced in the sterling support both provided to the Programme Director in the run up to, during, and post BME 2010. Following his coordinatorship accomplishments on the BME in 2009, Hasan Shikoh was again appointed WebCT Team Coordinator on the programme; he also had a 0.4 teaching role. Hasan offered unparalleled support to the teaching team in the form of professional de-velopment workshops and one-to-one training on the use of the iVLE and IT tools central to the BME.

John Williams was invited to assume the role of Team Coordinator for a fourth year and was accorded specific responsibility for curriculum support. John undertook this 0.4 post with vigour and passion. For the remaining 0.6 of his role, John shared the teaching of a 10-week group with Hasan. Geoff Cockayne and Clare Williams were re-cruited as BME Project Coordinators for the third and second consecutive year, respec-tively. In spite of a very large workload, pre-dominantly in the form of extensive marking, Geoff and Clare maintained high standards in their work while often having to make difficult decisions amidst stressful situations involving the students. Geoff also pioneered and led four fortnightly optional workshops for students entitled the ‘Friday Film’ in which he introduced students to British history through the medium of film.

Hasan

Clare

Jennifer Geoff John

Mike



The Teaching Team

Even the best laid plans can begin to unravel unless executed by skilled practitioners. By this account, the key players in the BME Pre-sessional are unquestionably the Teaching Team. A total of 25 staff were engaged on the BME in 2009; this number rose by 10 in 2010: 21 per-sonnel returned for their second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth consecutive BME Presessional; the remaining 14 were new to the programme.

In 2010, Home Teachers were timetabled to deliver 12 contact hours per week to their group, in addition to up to 3 hours in tutorials. They also assumed the responsibility of Sec-ond Teacher for another group’s Listening Module and Guest Lecture pre/post listening classes, totalling a further 5 hours per week. Having two teachers per group provided sev-eral benefits to both staff and students, includ-ing a consistent second marking/moderation partner for teachers, and exposure to another voice and teaching style for students. Figure 2 reflects a typical week on the BME.

Figure 2: Sample BME Timetable

SESSION 1

09.30 – 11.30 BREAK

SESSION 2 12.30 – 14.30

SESSION 3 15.00 – 17.00

Monday CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

(HT)

LANGUAGE of SEMINARS MEETINGS

(HT)

15.00 – 16.00 PROJECT WORKSHOP

BUSINESS CONCEPTS

LANGUAGE SUPPORT

TUTORIALS

Tuesday ACADEMIC WRITING

(HT)

LISTENING

(ST)

15.00 – 17.00 ISAS VISA EXTENSION

WORKSHOP

LANGUAGE SUPPORT

TUTORIALS

Wednesday

GUEST LECTURE PROGRAMME

09.30 – 10.15 LECTURE PRE-LISTENING (ST)

10.30 – 11.30 ANDY MULLINEUX

The Governance of ‘too big to fail’ Banks

11.45 – 12.30 LECTURE FOLLOW-UP (ST)

PROJECT WORKSHOP

CRITICAL THINKING

STUDENT REPS’ MEETING

LANGUAGE SUPPORT

TUTORIALS

Thursday ACADEMIC WRITING

(HT)

PRESENTATION SKILLS (HT)

15.00 – 16.30 MANAGING INFORMATION

(DATABASES) MINTEL

(Learning Centre)

LANGUAGE SUPPORT

TUTORIALS

Friday READING, GRAMMAR &

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT (HT)

12.30 – 15.00 OPTIONAL

FRIDAY FILM Cromwell

TUTORIALS (HT)

LANGUAGE SUPPORT

TUTORIALS

14.00 STAFF MEETING 15.00 STAFF: MARKING MODERATION WORKSHOP

SESSION 4

HT: Home Teacher ST: Second Teacher



Developing and enhancing existing skills to aid teaching is a key part of professional develop-ment; furthermore, the sharing of good prac-tice offers many pedagogical benefits in the classroom. Therefore, an amalgamation of the aforementioned was aimed for in the Profes-sional Development Workshops delivered in 2010. Many of the same were led by Senior Coordinators Jennifer Metcalfe and Mike Loughlin. The Teachers’ Top Tips workshop, which was an innovation, proved to be a successful way of involving all teaching staff in the sharing of pedagogical tips: The 10-minute ideas pro-vided by each teacher generated much posi-tive feedback from the team.

All teaching staff are observed in the third week of their engagement on the BME. This practice is both necessary and beneficial at multiple levels, but most notably because it:

fulfils the accreditation requirement of conducting swift and timely observations

offers opportunities for professional devel-opment

ensures that an assessment of teacher aptitude can be made within a timeframe that allows an opportunity for follow-up observations, if necessary

facilitates the nomination of teaching staff for peer observation/training

provides a forum for teacher appraisal

enables the management to check, main-tain and further raise standards on the programme

assesses whether institutional expecta-tions are being met and students are re-ceiving the highest possible level of in-struction

allows any concerns that may have been raised by students to be addressed in a timely fashion

Quality Assurance Observations

Professional Development



Language Support

In weeks 8 to 19 of the programme, Language Support Tutorials were provided to BME stu-dents who were referred for extra support by their Home or Second Teacher. These tutori-als, which were primarily scheduled to take place at the end of each day, were for those students who displayed weaknesses in specific aspects of their work, particularly in writing and/or speaking and pronunciation. In previous years, the appointment of one (and later, two) Language Support Teacher(s) meant that a substantial number of students were not able to secure the extra support they needed, despite the long hours invested by staff in this role. Given the above, a team of Language Support Teachers were engaged for BME 2010:

Athena Economides received a significant amount of praise from staff and students alike for her sole provision of quality pronunciation and speaking support. As a large proportion of referrals to the Lan-guage Support Team were for writing-related concerns, two teachers with an extensive pro-fessional writing portfolio were engaged to provide assistance with this skill: Abdelhamid Ahmed and Jabreel Asghar were new to the BME. David Nunn, who replaced Abdelhamid when the latter was asked to assume responsi-bility for a 10-week group following the depar-ture of their teacher, was also a new member of the team. Abdelhamid volunteered to lead a number of optional grammar-based workshops for stu-dents; these were very well received.

Course Secretary & Clerical Team

Alana Taylor, BME Secretary, joined the pro-gramme as a new member of the team in 2010. She swiftly adapted to her role and used her skills and expertise to aid the smooth admini-stration of the course. Alana was well sup-ported by Clerical Assistants, Matthew Cauld-well and Michelle Cabezas (0.5) who returned to the BME for their second and third consecu-tive year, respectively. Grace Farnell (0.5), also a new recruit, was engaged to offer clerical assistance in the last four weeks of the BME, the busiest period of the programme. A very special thank you is due to EISU’s Ad-ministration Team – Gail Horton, Vicky Spencer and Nimisha Prajapati, joined by Saroj Watton in 2010, for they were, as al-ways, exceptional in their on-going, year-round support behind the scenes. The BME Preses-sional would simply not be possible without all their work.



“…The BME Presessional course was a great ex-perience and the programme was particularly geared towards Business School students. While the small classes, dedicated professionals, spe-cially organized lectures and projects allowed me to improve my English-skills, the social activities gave me the chance to acclimatise to a new coun-try…”

Eda Akkor 10-week student from Turkey

Student Data

Table 1: Breakdown of BME Student Numbers by Course 2007-10

The UK saw a sizeable increase to the number of international postgraduate student applica-tions in 2010; this in turn impacted the places available on presessional and degree courses across the country. The BME experienced a record 40% rise in applications; as a result, the number of groups at the 15-week stage dou-bled from three to six.

Despite suggestions to increase class sizes to 14 in order to meet demand, the maximum number of students in any class was main-tained at 12: This decision ensured that the quality of provision on the BME was not com-promised in any way. Actual student numbers for 2010, and comparisons to previous years, are presented in Table 1:

Countries of Origin & Student Profile

Eighteen nationalities were represented on the BME in 2010. There was a slight reduction to the number of Taiwanese students registered on the programme, and an increase to the Chinese contingent. Additionally, a greater number of Thai students applied to study on the BME than in previous years. A breakdown of the students’ country of origin can be seen in Figure 3 below.

Of the 242 students on the BME in 2010, there was one undergraduate compared with 239 postgraduates. Additionally, a government officer from Japan and a Syrian business pro-fessional also attended the programme. A 15-week hearing-impaired student was en-rolled on the course. Close collaboration be-tween the BME and UoB Disability Team en-abled this student to be provided with the sup-port she needed to facilitate her success on the programme.

BME Presessional 2007 2008 2009 2010 BME Course

Start Dates 2010

20-week course 4 12 7 12 26th April

15-week course 22 33 35 53 1st June

10-week course 72 81 79 95 12th July

6-week course 48 66 60 82 9th August

TOTAL Students 146 192 181 242

1 1

136

1 4 217

2 1 1 1 7

38

125

2 1 1020406080

100120140160

BME Students 2010: Country of Origin

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BME Students’ Programme Destinations

The Marketing suite, which consists of four MSc programmes at the BBS, had previously been the most popular post-presessional de-gree choice for BME students, closely followed by International Accounting & Finance. In 2010, the latter took the lead. The table below shows students’ programme destinations as regis-tered at the time of their initial applications to study on the BME. A very small number of students were able to successfully negotiate a change to their future courses while studying on the BME; the most common requests were to transfer from a 24-month to a 12-month programme, or from one MSc course to an-other.

Students who were engaged in these negotia-tions acted independently of assistance from BME Staff. Requests for changes to BBS courses were not entertained after July. The only exception to this was the acceptance of students onto the GDBA programme, i.e. transfers from 12-month to 24-month courses. This happened in cases where Home Teachers recommended that certain students would benefit from registering on a longer programme as their performance on the BME had indicated that they would struggle on a more intensive 12-month post-graduate course of study.

Table 2: Post-BME Programme Destinations 2010

Post-BME Programme Destinations (October 2010) No. of

Students

MSc International Accounting & Finance 55

MSc International Business 44

MSc Marketing 41

MSc Human Resource Management 24

MBA (12 months) 23

MSc Investments 22

MSc International Marketing 5

MSc Strategic Marketing & Communications 4

MSc Marketing Communications 3

MBA (24 months) 2

MBA Strategy & Procurement Management 2

MBA Global Banking & Finance 2

BSc (Hons.) Accounting & Finance 2

MSc Accounting & Finance (24 months) 1

MSc International Business, Economic Competitiveness & Policy 1

MSc Economic Policy & International Business 1

MSc Accounting & Finance 1

MSc Business 1

MSc International Finance 1

Not Birmingham Business School/Other 7



"…The BME course was structurally well de-signed, with a combination of theory and practice. The emphasis and focus on business materials also helped students to quickly grasp the types of English required for their future business pro-grammes..."

Yardin Octora 10-week student from Indonesia

Curriculum & Materials

The BME has four themes which are rotated on a cyclical basis. These themes, Business Strategy & General Management, Human Re-source Management & Organisational Behav-iour, Marketing, and Accounting & Finance, have been selected for the BME curriculum because they reflect the most popular post-BME degree choices for our students, and, they offer a broad introduction to concepts within Business and Management.

The curriculum materials for any given week mirror the theme of that week. For instance, in week 12 of the programme in 2010, Business Ethics was explored under the umbrella of Business Strategy. The materials for the week were 4Cs, a case study on the ethics of dia-mond-mining; reading texts on Corporate Gov-ernance in the UK and an Introduction to Eth-ics; and listening materials which examined Strategy and Corporate Governance and an Introduction to Business Ethics.

A total of nine in-house publications have been developed for the BME; these handbooks are:

1. Teacher Handbook

2. Student Handbook

3. Working with Cases

4. Academic Writing Guide

5. Presentation Skills Guide

6. Reading Guide

7. 6-Week Reading Guide

8. Citation and Reference Guide: The Harvard Referencing System

Teachers were given ‘with key’ versions of 3, 4, 6 and 7 above; e-copies of all handbooks were accessible on WebCT. Students were pro-vided with personal copies of numbers 3, 4, 6/7, 8 and 9* (*excluding 6-week students), and they too could access all the handbooks, ex-cluding number 1, on WebCT. The Presenta-tion Skills and Citation Guide came ‘with key’ for both staff and students.

9. Project Handbook

In 2009, a Learning Agreement was introduced on the BME programme. This agreement be-tween EISU and the student highlights what is expected of learners in terms of commitment to their studies and meeting UKBA requirements; it also states what students can reasonably expect from EISU in return.

The document, which students sign in Induction Week, also contains a declaration for the sub-mission of future assignments on the BME,

BME Learning Agreement

stressing that students must adhere to the Codes of Practice on Plagiarism, and Diligence. It states that work produced on the course by the student will be free from any form of plagia-rism, and that where necessary, appropriate referencing will be employed to acknowledge ideas from other sources. Hence, the BME Learning Agreement satisfies two purposes: 1) it stresses the importance of academic integ-rity, and 2) it highlights the conditions of study as stipulated by the UKBA.



This module offers BME students the opportu-nity to attend specially convened weekly lec-tures (from the 10-week course onwards) deliv-ered by subject specialists from the BBS, and speakers from *external business enterprises. It also provides a key point of collaboration be-tween the BME and the BBS, and gives our students the chance to be introduced to some of their future lecturers.

This part of the programme has many peda-gogical benefits, the most obvious being the provision of academic sessions through which students can practise their listening skills. Also, the pre-listening class highlights the importance of preparing for lectures, whereas the post-listening session demonstrates why good note-taking and reflection are necessary. The Guest Lecture topics in 2010 were:

HRM Strategy Today - Economic Funda-mentals (Prof. Stan Siebert)

The Japanisation of the British Workplace (Dr Paul Forrester)

e-Branding and the Impact of Social Net-works (Dr George Christodoulides)

The Governance of ‘Too Big to Fail Banks’ (Prof. Andy Mullineux)

Viral Marketing (*Nick Holzherr)

International Teams (*Adrian Pilbeam)

Marketing Communications (Dr Caroline Moraes)

Negotiating Organisational Improvement (Dr Glyn Watson)

Each year, BME lectures are recorded using a facility like Panopto (see Figure 4), or Echo 360, which captures the presentations with their slides or other visual output by using a fixed camera and radio microphone. The data is then stored on a server before being streamed onto the iVLE. A link to the lecture recording is then sent to the named BME contact, Hasan Shikoh (BME WebCT Coordinator) who emails the same to Second Teachers only minutes after the end of each lecture. This enables teachers to re-visit the recording in the post-listening class. All guest lectures are saved in the resource bank for future reference.

Guest Lecture Programme

Figure 4: Panopto Image Capture on the BME



“…This course offers you the opportunity to get familiarized with academic writing, case study analysis, research skills and plagiarism issues; it also improves your speaking and vocabulary abilities. You get introduced to the UK culture and get to interact with people from other continents. All these boost your confidence to take on chal-lenges…”

Jean-Jacques Golou 10-week student from Benin

Booster Weeks

BME ‘Booster Weeks’, an innovation intro-duced in 2010, were devised after it was de-cided that students would benefit from inten-sive training in selected academic skills areas over a period of a week during their studies on the Presessional.

The two areas, Teamworking & Seminar Strategies, and Referencing & Citation, were chosen following meetings between the pro-gramme directors of the BBS and BME during which the former reported that these were the main areas in which students experienced the most difficulty during their degree courses.

The introduction of a Booster Week at five week intervals resulted in the replacement of curriculum materials for the same period. Therefore, the syllabus underwent a careful redesign in light of this change, allowing for the creation of stimulating materials for the two Booster Week topics: Clare Williams (BME Project Coordinator) was tasked with the pro-duction of these new materials.

Home Teachers were given each Booster Week for marking, report-writing and the com-pletion of other admin-related tasks, while the management and BME Coordinator Team led workshops with all the 20-, 15- and 10-week students.

A key objective of Booster Weeks was to de-velop student autonomy. The work produced by the students in both Booster Weeks and the feedback they gave during the de-briefing ses-sions revealed that this goal had been achieved and that the innovation had been a huge success.

In future years, Booster Weeks will comprise part of the students’ final summative score. It will be necessary, therefore, to reconsider the deadlines for other coursework assignments, and/or any assessment dates which may coin-cide with Booster Weeks.



“...The BME course gave me great confidence to survive in any formidable situation in my masters because this course extracted essential knowledge and academic skills for our future success…”

Tsuneki Sugizaki 10-week student from Japan

The Project - A Feasibility Report

As in previous years, the 20-, 15- and 10-week students undertook an extended piece of writ-ing, namely, the Project (3000 words). This assignment, which took place during weeks 12 to 19 of the programme, accounted for 25% of students’ summative mark. It offered an effec-tive way of developing students’ academic skills; in particular, it enabled the Project Coor-dinators to assess the following:

critical thinking & analytical skills

the application of business tools

research skills using business databases

reading strategies

referencing & citation skills

report-writing skills

time management & organisational skills

A large proportion of students repeatedly stated that they had found the Project to be ‘very challenging’, ‘stressful’ and ‘intensive’, particularly in light of the penalties that were applied upon submission of poor or incomplete work. A substantial number of all those who completed this work also remarked that the Project was ‘extremely useful’, particularly for their departmental studies. In their four-page report submitted to the BME Programme Director in October 2010, the Pro-ject Coordinators reported that:

154 students completed the Project in 2010 compared to 118 students in 2009, representing an increase of 30%

approximately 50% were asked to re-submit their work after the Final Submis-sion (compared with 11% in 2009); 18 failed the resubmission

very few students took the Finance option

seven project-related workshops were led for the students by the Coordinators

tutorials were organised at crucial stages of the Project; communication was also maintained via email, a blog and through personal visits to individual groups

The deliverables for the Project were: a pro-posal (approximately 700 words), a complete draft (3000 words) and a final report; the latter could be up to 5000 words with appendices. Where students scored below 50%, they were required to resubmit. The maximum mark which could be achieved for resubmissions was 50%. With student numbers on the BME continuing to grow, it is evident that a greater number of staff will be required to manage this part of the programme in future years. In light of frequent offers of support extended by Home Teachers in 2010, methods of facilitating the inclusion of timetabled weekly Project lessons delivered by the Home Teachers are now being explored.



“...The BME course taught me that patience and application can carry you through…”

Tong Li 15-week student from China

Assessment & Results

BME students are assessed on a range of skills at five-weekly intervals throughout the programme. These Progress Tests are de-signed to indicate the areas where students are excelling and/or struggling; the results of the progress tests do not count towards the sum-mative marks. The student’s summative score comprises the following assessed components of the pro-gramme: a case study analysis with set ques-tions, a long essay, a PDP reflective writing task, a project/feasibility report (not for 6-week students), and final exams which include a writing paper, case study analysis presented in report-form, and an oral presentation based upon the project or long essay.

Table 3: Final BME Results 2010

Of the 18 students who failed their Project resubmission in 2010, 17 still managed to achieve the necessary summative mark to meet the entry requirements for their post-graduate course at the BBS. All but 1 student who failed the Project was accepted onto their chosen programme of study: This student had a very low fail mark of 25% for his Project which had in turn resulted in a summative score of 48%, two marks below the 50% he required. He later accepted an offer of a place on a 24-month GDBA course. The BME has an average pass rate of 96%.

* The expulsion of three students from the course on the grounds of poor attendance and missed ‘contact points’, reinforced the importance of BME course policy and UKBA rules, respectively

Final Mark No. of

Students % of Total

70 & above – Excellent 17 7.02

60-69 – Good 150 61.98

50-59 – Pass 69 28.51

49 & below – Fail 1 0.41

Left Early 5* 2.07



In addition to ensuring that BME students are challenged and intellectually stimulated on EISU’s Presessional Programmes, they are also encouraged to take part in leisure activi-ties and weekend day-trips organised by the Unit. The tuition fees for the course not only include course materials, full access to the UoB’s libraries, Learning Centres, computer clusters and iVLE facilities, but also day trips to places of cultural interest and historical importance in the UK, like Oxford, Cambridge and Stratford-Upon-Avon. Furthermore, in the summer, a group of Social Organisers are recruited by EISU for the dura-tion of the BME and EAP Presessionals.

EISU Social Programme

Together, the Organisers create a social pro-gramme for students at EISU. A wide range of weekly events are offered to suit all interests, and students have the opportunity to choose and plan ahead by referring to the Weekly Newsletter produced by the Social Organisers (this is available on WebCT, the iVLE at the University). Some of the popular outings during weekdays are visits to the cinema and bowling centres, plus sports-related events. Entrance fees are not included. The Social Organisers recruited in 2010 were Tom Nevin, Amy Platt, Graeme Grime and Silvia Ghita.



“…The materials and resources were outstanding, and we were provided with everything to make our teaching efficient…”

15-week BME Teacher 2010

Course Evaluation

The BME’s Most Successful Parts

we, the teachers were always given enough support and guidance, but also freedom in our teaching…

the Booster Weeks were a real success…

the Writing Guide was excellent…

the Citation Guide is an invaluable re-source for students…

presentation & case study classes, and the pre & post lecture sessions work very well…

the Teacher’s Tips day was good...

the lectures were a good balance between graded and real language…

amazing organisation…fantastic, authentic materials…

excellent management…

The comments below are reflective of the remarks made by teachers during staff meetings, course evaluation workshops and one-to-one conversations. Additionally, some of the feedback has been retrieved from the anonymised questionnaires returned by individuals.

Staff Feedback

Suggestions for Next Year

a DVD and/or listening to presentation language, and being able to video stu-dents for self and peer assessment would be useful...

some focus on cultural requirements/expectations…

more focus on new developments in EAP…

adopt the BC method of very short “snapshot” observations...

allocate Coordinators to specific tutors as mentors…

involve Home Teachers in the Project…or have more project coordinators…

a clarification of the level in both English and business that the students should be aiming for/achieving...

visits from past students for Q&A sessions to help students…



“…It was the right decision to choose the Univer-sity of Birmingham and attend the BME; I learnt a lot from this course…”

Ming-Hui Wang 15-week student from Taiwan

The BME’s Most Successful Parts

our writing skill improved; the lectures were great; the project examines writing ideas in a broad way…

speaking: it is great to have a lot of pres-entations to practise…

my home and second teachers were very helpful: the quality of teaching is excel-lent…

it was very useful to learn how to use data-bases, and how to use references; it was helpful to learn how to write essays in an academic style…

I had heard that the programme was ex-cellent, and I’m pleased that I took part in it… I am sure it will help me to be a suc-cessful postgraduate student…

I learned writing skills from the project; I also enjoyed most of the classes…

in this course, I have learnt many skills for my future programme: it’s a pleasure that I applied for this course – in addition, I’ve made many new friends from this course…

I’ve learnt a lot of things from my teachers and my colleagues, such as time manage-ment, how to write a project and prepare presentations, and team work...

everything was excellent in BME course... thank you for everything, and for the friendly atmosphere…

A total of 225 students were present for the course-end evaluation workshop which took place in the final week of the course in 2010. The feedback they provided in this session took two forms: The first was instant real-time scoring through the use of personal response systems (or clickers) in TurningPoint; the second was through an anonymised ‘free comments sheet’ submitted to BME Clerical Assistants at the end of the workshop. A summary of the students’ evaluation is shown below. Some of the comments have been taken from the minutes of the fortnightly meetings held with Student Representatives; other feedback was offered in informal discussions with the Programme Director on a one-to-one basis.

Suggestions for Next Year

some courses about British Culture would be welcome…

how to talk like a native speaker…we just talk to other overseas students…!

put one or two Project examples on WebCT…

more speaking practice, please…

the Project handbook should be more detailed...

it will be better if there are more things that are related to accounting, investment and Human resources management, please…

there was a lot of work at the same time...

if possible, don’t make students move from one classroom to another…

in my opinion, 6-week BME course is a little short to cover all of the skills, espe-cially reading and listening skills…

more teachers should be invited from the Business School to give us some more lectures or lessons, or even to just come and chat to us…

Student Feedback



“…The BME course is the first step of getting in-volved with life at the University of Birming-ham…”

Siqi BME 2010 student

Collaboration Across the University

A large part of the operational success of the BME Programme is dependent upon collabora-tions with and support from various teams across the University. The smooth-running of the BME in 2010 was greatly assisted by the following (in alphabetical order), who each deserve a special mention…

Academic Conduct Unit (Rebecca Wooldridge) – laid the foundations of aca-demic integrity for BME students by high-lighting, through bespoke talks, the impor-tance of scholarly conduct and the ab-sence of plagiarism

Academic and Student Administration (Tam Milner & Team) – provided regular updates regarding a) the issuing of a CAS to each student, and b) our requirements and obligations under the UKBA’s Highly Trusted Sponsor scheme; Al Rodgers & Team were responsible for the issuing of ID cards to BME students upon arrival

Ashley Staff – provided a centrally lo-cated administration base, staff-room, photocopying room and management office

Business School Lecturers – offered continued valuable support on the BME Guest Lecture Programme

Central Print (Will Cooper & Team) – produced quality handbooks which helped to further strengthen the BME brand, add-ing a professional touch and value to the programme; they also printed – within 24 hours – the A1 Booster Week posters for 154 students

Cluster Development & IT Support (Brian Currier & Team) – were always on hand to provide efficient technical assis-tance with equipment in Ashley

Counselling & Guidance Services (Marilyn Benjamin) – led workshops on cultural diversity and the management of stress and anxiety

Disability Team (Sam Gamblin) – as-sisted the BME in supporting its hearing-impaired student

Fresh Thinking – ensured the punctual delivery of BME lunches for staff meetings

Housing Services (Diana O’Toole, Alison Mear, Lisa Carr & Teams) – were re-markably swift in meeting the growing demand for student and staff accommoda-tion; in addition, Diana delivered Housing Talks to each student cohort upon arrival

Human Resources (Anthony Seeley) – was always prompt and clear in his re-sponses regarding BME personnel-related queries

International Student Advisory Service (Yael Achtsam & Team) – provided dedi-cated support to EISU students in the form of multiple workshops offering assistance on the completion of the 50+ page UKBA visa renewal documents for students and their dependents

IT Services (Stuart Atkins & John Mathys) – assisted the BME in the establishment of e-files on the UoB server; the e-Learning Team (Sonia Lee Cooke & Debbie Carter) – delivered bespoke training programmes for BME staff on Excel & WebCT

Learning Resources Accommodation Team (LRAT) and the Teaching Accom-modation Management Unit (TAMU) – were, as ever, efficient and professional in the provision of technical support in class-rooms/lecture theatres, when needed

Learning Space Development Team – permitted special access to licensed facili-ties in the form of Panopto recording equip-ment which enabled the recording of BME Guest Lectures before they were streamed onto WebCT

Library Services (Steve Bull & Team) – played a crucial role on the BME in deliver-ing Library Tours during induction weeks, and subject-specific ‘Managing Information’ sessions for our students throughout each course

Room Bookings (Joanne Gooding & Ben Phillips) – were instrumental in ensuring that the BME had fully networked teaching spaces in various buildings in close prox-imity to our administration base



“...Our challenge is to become a leading global university...”

Professor David Eastwood Vice-Chancellor

In November 2010, the Vice-Chancellor (VC) revealed the UoB Strategic Framework for the next five years. In his document entitled, ‘Shaping our Future: Birmingham 2015’, David Eastwood (VC) identifies what we need to strive for collectively in order to become a ‘leading global university’. In outlining the key strategic goals, he states that at the UoB we must aim to:

1. enhance our research power 2. provide our students with a distinctive,

high quality experience 3. sustain our financial strength and use it

purposefully 4. enhance our performance and status as

an ‘engaged university’ 5. be the destination of choice amongst our

peers The five core values which are highlighted as underpinning the ethos of the University, are:

1. excellence – at the heart of all we do 2. distinctiveness – standing out amongst our

national and international peers 3. impact – making a difference to Birming-

ham, the country and the world 4. confidence – in ourselves, our decisions,

direction and purpose 5. pride – celebrating the quality of our staff

and students, and the prestige of being an elite university

The BME Presessional encompasses each of the above core values. Furthermore, ways to enhance the quality of the programme are actively sought on a regular basis. In 2011, efforts will be made to explore the VC’s strate-gic goals in relation to the BME.

The UoB’s Strategic Framework & the Future of the BME



“...This is the best English course that I have ex-perienced: It was very challenging…Thank you BME, for this knowledge and experience…”

Prangchai Sunvittayagul 10-week student from Thailand

Concluding Comments

Over a decade ago, a large proportion of inter-national students who came to study in the UK struggled when having to acclimatise to a stu-dent-centred learning approach in an active classroom environment. The overseas stu-dents of today, however, are more well-informed and aware of what to expect at a UK university – and they have expectations of their own for which they are not shy to seek fulfil-ment. With so many cities and educational establishments to choose from, it is a highly competitive market. The UoB is a well-respected institution across the globe. Furthermore, regular communication with the University’s International Marketing Officers and EISU’s overseas agents has con-firmed that, in the Presessional market, the BME Programme has gained an excellent reputation amongst international business stu-dents wanting to study in the UK, particularly in the last few years.

A healthy number of students who apply to the BME also do so on the basis of recommenda-tions from former students, thus demonstrating their confidence in the programme. In order to ensure that the BME’s distinctive brand identity is maintained, we must take pride in our high quality discipline-specific programme and seek to continually enhance and develop the same: responding to staff and student feedback is a key step in this process. Through team efforts and sustained collabora-tion with the BBS and other UoB teams, the BME Presessional will continue to make the desired impact…

Sophia Butt Director, BME Presessional Programme

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Tel: +44 (0)121 414 5701 Email: [email protected]

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Documents

BME Director's Report 2010