Wednesday, May 07, 2014

English at foreign universities: Not just studying English, but in English

The Economist reports:
The world’s elite speaks English, so universities around the world are not only teaching English, but increasingly, teaching in English. A new report from the British Council and Oxford University’s department of education highlights the trend and unsurprisingly finds that English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) is on the rise at all levels of education. But it is most pronounced at the post-secondary level.

Those who want to study in English (outside the English-speaking world) have many options. There are traditional foreign-founded universities like the American University in Cairo, as well as modern, local universities and colleges like the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia or ESMT, a business school in Berlin. A growing third option are the satellites of American universities, whether the University of Florida’s campus in Panama or New York University’s in Abu Dhabi.
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Even traditional institutions are increasingly teaching in English, especially at the graduate level. Students are particularly keen on English in inherently global subjects, including science and business. It is possible to get a master’s degree or even a PhD in some subjects at, say, the University of Copenhagen, Denmark’s most prestigious institution, without knowing a lick of the language of Kierkegaard. (Undergraduate classes remain mostly in Danish.) In 2011 Sofie Carsten Nielsen, then an opposition member of parliament, argued that universities should do even their internal business in English, to encourage foreign scholars resident there to take a bigger role in the university.

But not everyone is keen on the idea.
No word yet from tenured Marxists on American campuses who might claim this is a plot by white, heterosexual males. Also, no word yet on when the Koch brothers will be blamed for all this.