A SUBSIDIARY of language teaching giant Berlitz is planning to establish English teaching schools for foreign students at several Australian universities.
ELS has almost 50 schools with 15,000 students in the US and plans to expand into Australia and Canada.
ELS offers its own certificate of English proficiency, which competes with the widely accepted IELTS and TOEFL qualifications.
More than 600 US universities use the ELS 112 certification and 46 of them have an ELS language school on campus. The company also has a network of 1200 recruiting agents across the world looking for students who want to study abroad.
The company has been eyeing the strong growth in international student numbers in Australia, which it sees, along with Canada, as the next frontier. It has begun talks with several Australian universities.
ELS director of public relations Tadashi Okamura told the HES the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development was predicting 7.2 per cent annual growth in foreign student numbers worldwide, with China, South Korea and Saudi Arabia the big growth areas.
"We will see more and more opportunity in this area, especially in China," he said.
"A lot of people want to go to university, but because of the [relatively small] number of universities in China, they have to look for another country to study in.
"We have decided to expand this service not only in the US but to Australia and also Canada. We want to establish a network of universities in English-speaking countries."
He said one Australian university, which he declined to name, had already accepted the ELS 112 certificate of proficiency and the company was hoping this breakthrough would lead to broad acceptance across the sector.
Mr Okamura said ELS had already been in contact with the federal government about its intentions to expand into Australia and was pleased with the support it received.
Twenty per cent of undergraduate students in Australia are international students, compared with 3 per cent in Japan, he said.
"Australia is very, very active in recruiting international students. This is a national government policy to increase the number of international students, so they [the federal government] are very keen to work with us."
The company's pitch to universities is to deliver them foreign students with guaranteed English competency, allowing the universities to focus on delivering undergraduate and postgraduate courses and research.
Its pitch to students is about continuity: they can do their English training and degree in the same place.
"For the students we provide intensive English training, provide accommodation and help in applying to universities," Mr Okamura said.
ELS is aiming to establish language centres at as many universities as possible, depending on demand and student numbers. Its US operation has one language school for every 13 universities that accept its ELS 112 certification.
Like Berlitz, ELS is part of the publicly listed Benesse Group. The group's core business has been in educational products and services in Japan, but with the country's fertility rate dwindling, it has advanced into English teaching abroad through its acquisition of Berlitz and ELS.
Benesse, with interests in nursing homes in Japan, appears to have deep pockets to fund the expansion.
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