St Mary's MA Student Commended for Dissertation by British Council

An Applied Linguistics and ELT MA student at St Mary’s University, Twickenham has been given a commendation by the British Council for one of the best Masters’ dissertations in the field.

Ute Schaefer-Wilke’s work was recognised in the competition, which was open to students at universities globally, for her study entitled ‘English Language Policy in German Public Sector Higher Education’. The study grew out of her experience of teaching at the Freie Universitaet Berlin and is a critique of the lack of effective language planning policy in German higher education and by European policymakers.

The award is designed to recognise and celebrate the brightest minds in ELT at Masters level and was judged by a panel of British Council experts.

The British Council described Ute’s work as “an arresting story of the arrival of English as a medium of instruction into the European, specifically German, academy, and the consequences for language teaching and use in the context of a European language policy that recognises ‘internationalisation’ but ends up with ‘Englishisation’ of its curriculum.”

Programme Director of the Masters course at St Mary’s Dr Peter Howell, said, “While this is first and foremost an achievement for the individual student, it is also the 'tip of the iceberg' of excellent work being produced by St Mary's students, and does great credit to the excellent work of all staff working on the programme.

“I am particularly pleased that this is the work of a student on our innovative semi-distance programme in Berlin, for which faculty travel out to Germany to deliver the Applied Linguistics MA to language teachers there.”The paper is available to read on the British Council's English Agenda website.