Teaching in English on the rise in European universities
28 Mar 2008
Programmes taught in English in non-English-speaking European countries are on the rise. The Netherlands are the uncontested leader in this form of education, followed by Finland. All Nordic countries come out strong. English-medium education is mainly offered at the Master level, and predominantly in engineering and business studies. These are some of the key findings of a new study by the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA).
The Academic Cooperation Association (ACA), a Brussels-based higher education think tank, has just published a study on English-taught programmes in European higher education. The study is based on surveys of all recognized higher education institutions (about 2,200) in 27 European countries in which English is not the domestic language The book follows onto an earlier series of surveys which ACA undertook five years ago.
The number of English-taught programmes has roughly tripled in the last five years – to about 2,400 all over Europe. But in most countries, English-medium higher education is still a fairly marginal phenomenon. This is not so in the Netherlands, in Finland and in other Nordic countries, which are the European leaders in this form of tuition. In southern Europe, English-taught programmes are very rare.
Most of the offer – almost 80 percent – is concentrated in Master programmes at the postgraduate level. The leading subject areas are engineering studies, closely followed by business and management. 70 percent of programmes charge tuition fees, with Danish institutions being most expensive at about 11,000 Euro per year. 65 percent of all students enrolled are foreigners in the country of study, mostly from European and Asian source countries. Compared to five years ago, the international marketing of English-taught programmes has improved markedly. Language problems of professors and students play a relatively minor role now.