Global Issues

NUMBER 52, SUMMER 2008

Teaching in English on the Rise in European Higher Education

Bernd Wächter
Bernd Wächter is the Director of the Academic Cooperation Association. E-mail: bernd.waechter@aca-secretariat.be.

The latest UNESCO data cited 2.7 million international students worldwide in 2005, up from 1.8 million in 2000 and 600,000 in 1975. The figures are expected to rise fast in the coming years. While a fierce competition has set in over these students, non-English-speaking destinations are often seen as disadvantaged in this sector. The linguistic handicap is one of the reasons why continental European countries started, some 10 years ago, to introduce instruction in English. In 2002, the Academic Cooperation Association, a Brussels-based European association specialized in the internationalization of higher education, produced the first ever empirical study on this phenomenon. Six years later the organization has now come out with a follow-up study (Bernd Wachter and Friedhelm Maiworm. English-Taught Programmes in European Higher Education: The Picture in 2007. Bonn: Lemmens, 2008). This article presents the key findings from the original publication.

Strong Growth, Uneven Distribution
The study is based on surveys of 2,200 higher education institutions in 27 European countries where English is not the domestic language of instruction. It identified about 2,400 English-medium programs in the 38 percent of responding institutions. This finding translates into a threefold increase since the 2002 surveys. Despite this, the English-medium offer still represents only a modest share of the average European program provision.

It is important to note that English-medium provision unevenly extends across Europe. Nearly one-third of all identified programs are offered by institutions in the Netherlands, the uncontested European leader in this form of education. Germany, the second provider in absolute numbers, occupies only a modest middle-rank position. The Nordic countries all score at high levels. Higher education institutions in southern Europe, on the other hand, offer very few programs in English. In institutional terms, it is the PhD-awarding, multidisciplinary (comprehensive) universities with large enrollments rather than the smaller, college-type institutions that offer most English-medium programs. Interestingly, there is no clear correlation between the number of these programs and the number of international students at an institution. Institutions with a modest proportion of international students—above all in countries with languages less often spoken, internationally—appear to use English-medium programs as a means of "countersteering." They introduce these programs because they cannot attract sufficient numbers of students with provision delivered in the domestic language.

Focus on Postgraduate Studies
English-medium education is very predominantly offered at the master's level, with a share of almost four-fifths of all programs. In some countries, such as Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland, the postgraduate share even exceeds 90 percent. Since 2002, when the postgraduate proportion stood at 68 percent, the trend toward the second cycle has thus been further strengthened.

Across Europe, the subject area in which English-taught programs are most frequently offered is engineering and technology (27 percent), followed by business and management studies (24 percent) and the social sciences (21 percent). Together, these three subject area groups make up 72 percent of the total program offer. The subject-area distribution has changed remarkably since 2002, when business and management led the second-ranked subject area, engineering, by more than double, and the social sciences were only in fourth place.

English-medium education in Europe is still an early-stage phenomenon since a fast growth rate is under way. The majority of the programs identified (51%) were created in the four years prior to the surveys. More than a quarter even came into being in the last two years. Only about one-fifth of all programs were set up before 2000.

Students enrolled in English-taught programs are, in the majority, foreigners in their country of study. Their share is almost two-thirds (65%), up from 60 percent in the 2002 surveys. Domestic students, with an overall share of 35 percent, tend to concentrate in bachelor's programs, where they make up more than half of all students. The largest group of international students is made up of Europeans (36%), closely followed by Asians (34%). The largest single nationality group across Europe consists of Chinese, with close to 10 percent, but the regional origin of students differs considerably between receiving countries.

More than two-thirds of all programs (70%) charge tuition fees, a level considerably up from 2002. Only northern Europe (Finland, Sweden, and Norway) is still almost "fee free." On a European average, the annual fee for domestic students and those from European Union countries is about €3,400. The fee for international students from outside the EU is roughly €6,300. Programs in Denmark were most expensive, at €11,000 on average.

The Language Debate: Normalcy, at Last
Especially in the early years, provision of education in English led to a heated—not to say, ideological—debate. Critics of English-medium teaching and learning maintained that this approach would inevitably lead to a loss of quality, due to the deficiencies in the command of English among both the teachers and the students. The new trend is also seen as a threat that will ultimately lead to the extinction of many a small language as a medium of scientific expression. Defenders admitted that while problems existed, they were not nearly as serious as the critics believed.

The findings of the 2002 surveys already seemed to support the defenders&151;as does the present study, even more clearly. Only 16 percent of respondents identified an insufficient command of English among international students. And only 9 percent found the mastery of English among domestic students inadequate. Perhaps surprisingly, the most frequently stated linguistic problem concerns the (lack of) mastery of the domestic language by international students. While the problem has not changed, Europe's higher education institutions have become accustomed to the communication situation in the international classroom. What once created frustrations is today viewed as a normal condition.

[Online] Available: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/Number52/p3_Wachter.htm