Studying through the medium of Welsh will mean students will have mastered important transferable skills in both languages which are beneficial in an increasingly competitive employment market.

Businesses are increasingly beginning to see the benefit of bilingual education for their future employers, hence the importance of the ability to study bilingually at the University of Glamorgan.

http://www.caerphillyobserver.co.uk/news/681861/welsh-medium-provision-at-glamorgan-business-school/

Business students at the University of Glamorgan’s Business School will able to study bilingually for the first time this year.

From September, students will have the opportunity to study some modules through the medium of Welsh.

Glamorgan Business School has a dedicated Welsh-medium lecturer who is tasked with developing this provision in South East Wales.

The post, held by Heledd Bebb, is one of the first lecturing posts funded by the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol to raise demand and develop Welsh medium provision.

Further Welsh medium provision will be developed at Glamorgan over the next few years and by 2014, a third of the business course each year will be available through the medium of Welsh.

Students studying two modules a year in business through the medium of Welsh are eligible for the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol’s incentive scholarships – worth £1,500 over three years.

Ms Bebb said: “Studying business through the medium of Welsh brings a whole host of benefits to the student. In both the private and public sector in Wales, demand for Welsh-medium skills in areas such as marketing, human resources and management is increasing.

“The recent Welsh Language Measure, passed in 2012,  by the Welsh Government, will only increase the need for businesses to provide services through the medium of Welsh. Studying part of their course through the medium of Welsh will mean that students will have mastered important transferable skills in both languages which could prove beneficial in an increasingly competitive employment market.”

Italy Has New Bilingual Education Site

Italy has just announced that it will have a new Bilingual Education Site which allows students to look up in either Italian or English the courses available in the country.

They are hoping that local students will also gain from this:

But the introduction of classes taught in English is aimed at local students as well. “We need to enhance the teaching of foreign languages to enable graduates to be more ready for a job market that is increasingly less national and more, at least, European,” Mr. Profumo said

See the rest below or see the original report at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/world/europe/16iht-educbriefs16.html

In an attempt to open up Italian universities to local and international students, Italy’s Education Ministry introduced last Thursday the first bilingual Web site listing all university courses available in the country.

When at full capacity, UniversItaly will enable students to browse — in Italian and in English — the classes offered by Italian colleges, academies, conservatories and technical schools, and compare tuition fees, potential scholarships and services. Officials hope that the site will help students choose their degrees in a more targeted way and lower the rate of dropouts in the first year, which is about 23 percent in Italy.

The visibility given to all universities could trigger greater competition among schools and consequently improve their services.

“This process will break the dam,” the education minister, Francesco Profumo, told reporters in Rome. “Just by announcing that this picture of Italian universities will be made public, courses in English grew by 28 percent.”

Foreign students in Italy are a rare breed, estimated at 3.3 percent, about a third of the average of 8.7 percent among the free-market democracies that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

But the introduction of classes taught in English is aimed at local students as well. “We need to enhance the teaching of foreign languages to enable graduates to be more ready for a job market that is increasingly less national and more, at least, European,” Mr. Profumo said

Through the Web site, foreign students can register to take the admission test for Italian medical schools. Thanks to an agreement with Cambridge, the test will be administered in English next September, and students will be able to take it in several countries, from the United States to China.

 — GAIA PIANIGIANI

 

‘Independent thinkers’ sought by many schools

According to a survey of British and U.S. admissions officers, universities are looking for “independent thinkers.”

The research, conducted by ACS International Schools, which has three schools in Britain and one in Qatar, is carried out to measure the value of the International Baccalaureate diploma. The study was released July 6 to coincide with the day that I.B. diploma results were announced worldwide.

The survey found that 29 percent of U.S. admissions officers valued a demonstrated capacity for “independent inquiry” above any particular exam result. The next most sought-after quality was “in-depth subject expertise,” cited by 25 percent of respondents.

“American universities are looking first and foremost for students able to challenge conventional thinking and want to see clear evidence of this above all else in the qualifications and written submissions they receive from university applicants,” said Jeremy Lewis of ACS International Schools.

The survey also found that applications to U.S. universities have held up despite the economic downturn, with two-thirds of admissions officers in the United States saying that the number of incoming freshmen was better than expected. This contrasts with the response from Britain, where tuition fees have tripled and where only a quarter of admissions officers said that application numbers exceeded expectations.