© 1991 by Oxford University Press
Articles |
This rise and call of academic management
RSA Diploma in TEFL and an MA in Linguistics in Education. She has taught EFL in Italy, and has worked in The British Council's English Language Division for over ten years. She is currently Head of The British Council's Accreditation Unit in Britain, and responsible for the administration and management of The British Council schemes for accrediting TEFL institutions in the private sector, and TEFL courses in the state sector in the UK. Readers who wish to know more about The British Council's accreditation schemes should write to Jenny Pugsley at The British Council, 10 Spring Gardens, London SW1A 2BN.
This article traces the emergence in the United Kingdom of the notion of ‘academic management’ in English language teaching. The rise of academic management is attributed to the proliferation in recent years of EFL courses and related TEFL training programmes; to the effect on the ELT profession of contemporary concepts of management issues and their associated terminology; and especially to the redefinition of the traditional role of the Director of Studies (DoS) in private-sector TEFL in the UK. The article offers one account of the questions to be addressed by academic managers today, and outlines the development of academic management in The British Council's schemes for accrediting private-sector institutions and state-sector courses in Britain.