Language schools left high and dry
A number of language schools were caught on the wrong foot this summer when the number of students they were expecting from Spain did not choose Malta to utilise the scholarship grant given to them by the Spanish government to improve their English,...
A number of language schools were caught on the wrong foot this summer when the number of students they were expecting from Spain did not choose Malta to utilise the scholarship grant given to them by the Spanish government to improve their English, The Times Business has learned.
The language schools which spoke to The Times Business expressed their regret that after having committed host families, accommodation and teachers for this summer, the number of Spanish students coming to Malta dropped drastically.
Malta, the UK and Ireland last year welcomed more than 45,000 university students from Spain for an average stay of three weeks each between July and November.
The stay was part of the Spanish Education Ministry's (MEC) project to send up to a quarter of its university students to improve their English, by providing scholarships to each student worth around €1,650.
Inclusion in the list of countries which MEC scholarship students may visit was not automatic and Malta, like last year, was included in the approved list of countries that may be visited.
The industry was hoping that the same number of Spanish university students would visit Malta and a conservative estimate of what would have been spent by these students was set at €14 million.
Language schools told The Times Business that the situation with regard to these scholarships is certainly not as promising as they had expected. They said they put in lots of time and effort since the beginning of the year to ensure the smooth running of the busy MEC reservations that they had all hoped for.
Moreover, some of them said they had also invested money with charter flights, extra staff, spent money on the pre-paid booking of entire blocks of self-catering apartments and also booked the best possible hotels and host families to accommodate the Spanish university students.
The language schools had been informed that the Spanish government had only approved a total of 15,000 applications for all English-speaking countries.
The schools are now counting on a new scholarship scheme for people wanting to become teachers or for people who are already teachers. These scholarships include general English courses and the deadline for the receipt of applications was the end of last month. The grant of €4,000 per person can be used for study until June 2009.
Contacted for his comments on the situation, Andrew Mangion, the president of the Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations of Malta (Feltom) confirmed that many language schools were disappointed with the number of Spanish students who chose Malta this summer.
Mr Mangion explained that around 9,000 Spanish scholarship students came to Malta last year and spent an average of three weeks for a total of 27,000 student weeks. This amounted to 13 per cent of the total of 212,000 student weeks Malta had last year.
He said this year Malta is not expected to receive more than 3,000 students from Spain. Not only Spanish scholarship students had decreased but also regular language students from Spain had decreased considerably, probably due to the economic situation there.
Mr Mangion confirmed the perception that there are fewer students than last year this summer, saying this was due to the sharp decrease in students from Spain.
The language schools which spoke to The Times Business expressed their regret that after having committed host families, accommodation and teachers for this summer, the number of Spanish students coming to Malta dropped drastically.
Malta, the UK and Ireland last year welcomed more than 45,000 university students from Spain for an average stay of three weeks each between July and November.
The stay was part of the Spanish Education Ministry's (MEC) project to send up to a quarter of its university students to improve their English, by providing scholarships to each student worth around €1,650.
Inclusion in the list of countries which MEC scholarship students may visit was not automatic and Malta, like last year, was included in the approved list of countries that may be visited.
The industry was hoping that the same number of Spanish university students would visit Malta and a conservative estimate of what would have been spent by these students was set at €14 million.
Language schools told The Times Business that the situation with regard to these scholarships is certainly not as promising as they had expected. They said they put in lots of time and effort since the beginning of the year to ensure the smooth running of the busy MEC reservations that they had all hoped for.
Moreover, some of them said they had also invested money with charter flights, extra staff, spent money on the pre-paid booking of entire blocks of self-catering apartments and also booked the best possible hotels and host families to accommodate the Spanish university students.
The language schools had been informed that the Spanish government had only approved a total of 15,000 applications for all English-speaking countries.
The schools are now counting on a new scholarship scheme for people wanting to become teachers or for people who are already teachers. These scholarships include general English courses and the deadline for the receipt of applications was the end of last month. The grant of €4,000 per person can be used for study until June 2009.
Contacted for his comments on the situation, Andrew Mangion, the president of the Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations of Malta (Feltom) confirmed that many language schools were disappointed with the number of Spanish students who chose Malta this summer.
Mr Mangion explained that around 9,000 Spanish scholarship students came to Malta last year and spent an average of three weeks for a total of 27,000 student weeks. This amounted to 13 per cent of the total of 212,000 student weeks Malta had last year.
He said this year Malta is not expected to receive more than 3,000 students from Spain. Not only Spanish scholarship students had decreased but also regular language students from Spain had decreased considerably, probably due to the economic situation there.
Mr Mangion confirmed the perception that there are fewer students than last year this summer, saying this was due to the sharp decrease in students from Spain.