According to UED, the sector is still recovering from damaging political unrest and high currency rates, however in a ceremony in Istanbul last week, more than half of the providers were new to the winners’ circle with EC taking home two accolades for best English school in both Malta and the UK.

ELS Language Centers was named school of the year in the USA for the second year in a row but was beaten this year by the Australian Institute of Professional Education for the title of Best English Language School in Australia.

EC took home two accolades for best English school in both Malta and the UK

Meanwhile, Atlas Language School was awarded Best English Language School in Ireland for the first time.

Other winners from 2013 that were once again hounered by UED include ILAC  in Canada, French in Normandy in France, Enforex in Spain, DID-Deutsh in Germany and Linguaviva in Italy.

With schools in almost 20 cities worldwide, UED members voted Embassy English Best Chain Language School of the Year for the second time in a row..

There were also repeat winners for the title of Best Summer School as Studio Cambridge won the award for English and Humboldt Institut for German. Meanwhile Centre International D’Anitbes won the title for French summer school for the first time.

Guard Me was the second-time recipient of award for Best Insurance Company of the Year as well as Turkey Airlines for Best Airline of the Year.

UED launched the awards last year to reward language schools and companies who give the best service to Turkish students and agencies. Winners were decided based on votes from executives at UED’s 44 member agencies.

“Eren Goker spoke passionately about the values and principles upon which UED was founded and its members embrace,” Robin Garforth, EC Sales Development Director told The PIE News.  “EC shares these same core values, which made it even more of an honour to be recognised as Best English Language School Malta and Best English Language School UK.”

According to Gokhan Islamoglu, Coordinator at UED, agencies have seen business fall 10% this year as many students cancelled or decided to postpone their studies as a result of political unrest in the country and high currency exchange rates.

Agencies concentrating on summer schools and group booking especially suffered because of the earlier reservation cycles.

“It was so late because they usually complete their bookings before the spring so the ones in the summer school business were not able to cover the loss in summer months,” Islamaglu told The PIE News.

“Business picked up again for most agencies by the summer,” he added. “Everybody knows this was a very very extraordinary condition and we are all hopeful for 2015.”