The transformational project has delivered an English Language Curriculum of a new generation: level specific, competence based, and job related.

Client, stakeholders, partners

• The Ministry of Education and Science, Ukraine
• 8 Ukrainian Universities
• Lancaster University, UK
• The College of St Mark and St John, UK

Focus
Language education reform; academic mobility for students and staff in the European Higher Education Area.

The project
The transformational project has delivered an English Language Curriculum of a new generation: level specific, competence based, and job related. It aims to ensure the relevance of the curriculum for English to the employment market. The curriculum has been endorsed by the Ministry of Education Ukraine, and adopted by many universities in Ukraine.

The curriculum is informed by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and adheres to the fundamental principles of the Bologna Process. It introduces level B2 in the CEF as a qualification level for Bachelors degrees, and is succeeding in stimulating the mobility of Ukrainian student and staff in the European Higher Education Area.

The core of the project involved building the capacity of a team of ten Ukrainian curriculum writers. The project also succeeded in raising awareness among the national ELT community of the integration process in language education in Europe.

Potentially the project will have a huge impact, reaching 25,000 teachers of English and one million university students, providing new skills and opening up new opportunities.

What the stakeholders say
From the formal, independent curriculum review: "...the Curriculum is undoubtedly a new millennium document which takes into account the national higher education policy. ... It promotes shifting the emphasis from knowledge as isolated constructs to the integration of knowledge and skills in a process-oriented approach to learning. ... By focusing on language proficiency levels, the curriculum will increase the quality of English language learning and potentially affect learning other languages in Ukraine. ..."

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