English as a Medium of Instruction in European Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities for Europe and the UK

In the past few decades, higher education institutions in non-Anglophone Europe have seen a dramatic increase by more than 1,000% in English-taught programmes (Wächter and Maiworm 2014). But why do countries suddenly decide to change the language of their educational system from students' home language, whether French, Dutch or something else, to one that students know less well, 'knowing full well that many students will struggle to understand what is being taught, and might engage less with the learning process as a result?' (Macaro 2018: 290).

This project aims to further knowledge on why English as a Medium (EMI) happens by bringing together the state of the art in Linguistics and Political Science. Linguists have typically not engaged with academic governance despite Political Science having an established literature on governmentality that can explain how actions and conditions in the social and political world have certain - sometimes unintended - outcomes. Political scientists, on the other hand, have typically not had language as their object of analysis. By working in the interface of Linguistics and Political Science, the project will significantly advance our understandings of EMI. As EMI has profound economic, educational, professional and societal consequences, not only for non-Anglophone Europe, but for the UK, and its growth is expected to continue, the need for finding out why it happens is both pressing and immense.

To explore the link between EMI and academic governance, the Principal Investigator will lead a team of three Post-Doctoral Research Associates. Adopting theoretical and methodological frames from Political Science, the team will conduct six in-depth case studies in higher education institutions in three regions in Europe that are known to differ in the amount of EMI offered, exploring institutional and national higher educational policies and documents and interviewing decision makers across the university and at national and international level. We will also conduct a cross-case comparison of 15 higher education institutions in Europe to explore the links between EMI and national and institutional attributes, such as levels of English proficiency, population size, international recruitment strategies, European convergence initiatives, etc. In combination, the in-case and cross-case approach will enable us to arrive at both a contextually sensitive understanding and a generalisable model of why EMI happens and how it relates to priorities in contemporary academic governance. We will also explore different models of EMI across Europe in order to inform the development of a 'best practice' framework that will ensure that EMI is delivered without adverse effects on teaching, learning and wider society.

The outcomes of the project will be both theoretical and practical. Theoretically, the project will generate a critical understanding of how the implementation of specific forms of governance might lead - perhaps unintentionally - to language shift in transnational institutions, here universities. As reforms - and indeed EMI - are happening in higher education across the world (Broucker and De Wit 2015; Macaro et al. 2018), the findings are of global relevance. Practically, the project will devise innovative solutions to EMI to the mutual benefit of Europe and the UK. A 'best practice' framework will be developed and rolled out across European higher education. This will pave the way for opening up new employment and consultancy opportunities for the UK English for Academic Purposes industry, which has a well-established expertise in preparing overseas students for study in the UK. This expertise can be repurposed for an expanding EMI market. As EMI is in growth not just in Europe but across the world, the opportunities opened up by the project are vast and global in scale and extend far beyond the project's lifetime.

The wider benefits of the project are both theoretical and practical.

Theoretically, the project will generate a critical understanding of how specific forms of governance might lead to (perhaps unintended) language shift in transnational institutions, here universities. As governance reforms - and indeed EMI - are happening in higher education systems across the world, the findings are of global relevance and can inform decisions on how to organise the higher education sector.

Practically, the project will devise innovative solutions to EMI to the mutual benefit of Europe and the UK. A 'best practice' framework will be developed and rolled out across European higher education, with the aim of ensuring that EMI is delivered without adverse effects on teaching, learning and wider society. Currently, EMI tends to be implemented haphazardly and in a way that is not properly thought through. As EMI is expected to continue to expand and has profound economic, educational, professional and societal consequences, the need for developing and promoting a best practice framework for EMI delivery is both pressing and immense.

Six specific groups have been identified as beneficiaries of this research:

1) European higher education decision and policy makers at institutional, national and international level:

a) At institutional level, this group encompasses Vice-Chancellors, Heads of Internationalisation Units, Faculty Deans, Heads of Department, EMI programme leaders, and others. The group will benefit from a heightened awareness of any linguistic consequences of their decisions and governance priorities. They will benefit from guidelines on EMI implementation, such as the establishment of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) units, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) pedagogy, Continued Professional Development frameworks, minimal CEFR English language requirements for lecturers and students, etc.

b) At national and international level, the group includes policy-makers in government departments and agencies, international institutions, non-governmental organisations, such as the OECD, UNESCO, EU Commission, Council of Europe (see stakeholders' Letters of Support). This group will benefit from evidence to inform and improve their policies and from knowledge on how internationalisation, mobility and EU convergence can be achieved without compromising educational quality and national and linguistic interests.

2) Higher education quality assurers in Europe will benefit from evidence-based criteria to ensure a high-quality implementation, delivery and monitoring of EMI programmes that they can apply in their quality assurance procedures.

3) EMI lecturers will benefit from improved institutional support and recognition, access to professional development and EAP and CLIL training.

4) EMI students will also benefit from quality EAP courses and indirectly from being taught by well-trained and institutionally supported lecturers.

5) Wider society will benefit from a greater number of high-quality graduates to fulfil roles in society and thereby get more value for their tax money.

6) EAP professionals in the UK will benefit from the development and roll-out of the best practice framework which will pave the way for opening up new employment and consultancy opportunities. The UK EAP industry has a long tradition for and well-established expertise in preparing overseas students for study in the UK, an expertise that can be repurposed for an expanding EMI market.

In sum, through improving EMI policies and practices in Europe while opening up new opportunities for the UK EAP industry, the educational, economic, political and cultural interdependency of UK and Europe will be enhanced and strengthened post Brexit. As EMI is in growth not just in Europe but across the world, the opportunities opened up by the project are vast and global in scale and extend far beyond the project's lifetime.