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Mark Harris, President of ELS

ELS Educational Services offers English language training, university pathways and placement services at 69 centres worldwide. Its ELS certificate of completion is also recognised by over 650 institutions in the US, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, and now France. We catch up with President and CEO Mark Harris.

The PIE: What is ELS up to at the moment?

"A lot of universities don’t have the reach or the resources to provide the services agencies can"

MH: As tertiary institutions throughout the European community have begun offering degree programmes in English medium, we see the opportunity to support them in the recruitment of students internationally as well as providing intensive English as a second language on campus to prepare students for academic success.

We’ve just opened our first ELS on-campus pathway in Europe at SKEMA Business School in Nice, and this is a reflection of our strategy to support English-medium tertiary education in any country where it may be taking place. Last year we opened an ELS centre on the campus of Universiti Putra Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia, like France, is an increasingly important destination for international students.

“At the moment the two European countries of greatest interest are France and Germany”

The PIE: So you plan to partner with more European institutions? Any in mind?

MH: At the moment the two European countries of greatest interest are France and Germany. They’ve switched positions in terms of their global ranking as study destinations, Germany in fourth, France now in fifth place, but are still head and head in attracting both undergraduates and postgraduates. The Netherlands and Switzerland are also of interest.

The PIE: English medium education in France is quite widely available but still technically restricted by law. Could it actually take off?

MH: The politics of the English language as a language of instruction is a bit of a political hot potato in France. There’s a debate going on about the appropriateness of higher education being provided in English using public resources right now, although the government is pushing for it. But we’ll have to wait and see what comes out of it.

However, I only see demand increasing for English-medium education and pathways such as ours. France has long been one of the prime student destination countries because of the quality of its education, and SKEMA is an example with its very high ranking in The Financial Times’ international business school category. I see such quality as being a basis for demand.

The PIE: What about the general unease in Europe over public-private partnerships in education. Could that get in the way of ELS’ continental expansion?

MH: We would look forward to the opportunity at some point of engaging with public sector institutions in Europe and we think it will happen. In the USA we currently have as many pathway centres at public universities as we do private, and it’s really over the last decade that this has happened.

This is because an increasing number of public universities in the US, particularly four-year research institutions, are eager to attract more international students and to have them better prepared, so they are turning to private sector solutions. I feel that in time we will partner with more public institutions in Europe as well as in the US, Australia and other countries. ELS’ expertise is in bringing qualified international students to universities, to the benefit of the university, its domestic and international students.

The PIE: ELS offers pathways, general English and placement services. What percentage does each constitute in the business?

“The politics of the English language as a language of instruction is a bit of a political hot potato in France”

MH: Our specialisation, and means of running the company, is English for academic pathways and so most of our income comes from tuition fees. On the other hand, the reason why many universities are partnering with us is because we also have an international recruitment network.

This begins with 40 different micro sites in local languages and our main site and publications in 20 languages. We also attend 450 student fairs in 28 countries each year and have a network of trained, and in many cases ELS-certified, counselling agencies in 93 countries.

The PIE: What do schools get from your placement services? Wouldn’t it be cheaper for them to recruit themselves?[More>>]

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