IELTS Research Reports

A multiple case study of the relationship between the indicators of students’ English languagecompetence on entry and students’ academic progress at an international postgraduate university3 CONTEXT FOR STUDYThe institutional setting for the study is Cranfield University, a wholly postgraduate UK university,classified as a specialist institution by the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE)because of its strengths in engineering and aerospace. Cranfield’s focus on applied knowledgemarks it out as unusual amongst its peers. Instead of traditional academic disciplines, the Cranfieldcampus is organized into four Schools; the Schools of Management (SOM), Applied Sciences(SAS), Engineering (SOE) and Health (CH) and many of the Masters programmes on offerare multidisciplinary in line with the applied focus and strong existing links with industry andmanagement. The rural location of the campus is rare for a UK HEI and renders students largelyreliant upon themselves for social and extracurricular activities. In these, and other, respects it providesa contrast to the more typical UK university setting in Banerjee’s study.During the 2007/8 academic session there were 1646 students registered on taught postgraduateMasters programmes on the Cranfield campus. The distribution of students across the four Schoolswas as follows: Management 33%, Applied Sciences 29%, Engineering 31% and Health 7%. Whilstthe numbers of overseas students has increased over recent years, the international character of theCranfield student body has been established for some time such that in 2008 it was ranked secondin the world for its international student community in the Times Higher Education (THE) WorldUniversity Rankings. In 2007/8 there were over 110 nationalities represented on campus.Thebreakdown in terms of student nationality on the Cranfield campus was 36% UK, 31% non UK EUand 33% from elsewhere in the world. Compared to the HESA figures for the sector, the Cranfieldstudent population has fewer UK students and proportionately more non UK EU students amongst theoverseas group. These descriptive institutional statistics operate at the institutional level and so fail toconvey the range of national diversity evident in classes between different Masters programmes.Around 65 taught Masters programmes were offered in the 2007/8 academic session at Cranfield,although a number of programmes sub-divide into as many as four to six Options. Most programmes areheaded by a single named Course Director, with one or two exceptions where directorship is shared andit is unusual for a single person to have responsibility for more than one Masters course. Directorshipof Options varies; occasionally it remains the responsibility of the overall Course Director but, moreusually, it is awarded to another member of teaching staff whose academic speciality it is. Occasionallybut not routinely, Options Directors may also undertake selection duties. In 2007/8, the Schools of Healthand Management offered around ten programmes each with the remainder equally divided between theSchools of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The disciplinary specialisms of Cranfield are associatedwith a bias towards men amongst staff and students (28% women).Cranfield Course Directors undertake full responsibilities for student selection akin to AdmissionsTutors in larger institutions. They play a crucial role in maintaining academic standards, acting asthe link between classroom practice and institutional policy. With their responsibilities for overallassessment, Course Directors are in an almost unique position to make judgements about therelationship between selection decisions and academic outcomes on their programmes. They are alsolikely to be the final arbiter in borderline cases of selection.The design of one year taught course Masters programmes at Cranfield is remarkably similar acrosssubjects and Schools. Courses are modular in structure, with module length varying between oneand four weeks. Typically, in the first term, teaching takes place largely through the medium oflectures and practicals; in the second, students undertake a group project and in the final term, theyembark on an individual research project and thesis. Assessment takes place after each module andIELTS Research Reports Volume 11139