Here at the UCL IOE Confucius Institute for Schools we have been proudly delivering the Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP) in partnership with the British Council since its launch in 2016. Now into its fifth year, the MEP is an intensive language programme funded by the Department for Education, with almost 7,000 students across the country currently enrolled and on track to fluency in Mandarin.
The findings of the MEP Independent Evaluation Report published on Thursday 21st January look back at the first four years of delivery of the programme. Click the image below to read the report in full.
Together with our British Council colleagues we organised two online webinars to coincide with the publication of the report. Katharine Carruthers (MEP Strategic Director) spoke at both events followed by Kieron Culligan, representing Research Stories, who authored the evaluation. Kieron delved into the findings of the report and this was followed by a question and answer session at both events.
The first webinar took place on Wednesday 20th January and was for an exclusive audience of MEP staff: Headteachers, Chinese Teachers, Heads of Department and support staff from MEP schools. As well as discussing the evaluation and its outcomes, the event also allowed us to congratulate our MEP network on their success, and to say thank you for their much-appreciated hard work and commitment to the programme.
Katharine Carruthers, Mandarin Excellence Programme Strategic Director at UCL Institute of Education, said:
The first four years of the Mandarin Excellence Programme have been a tremendous success and I am delighted that the independent evaluation published today reflects that. We now have almost 7,000 pupils studying Chinese on the MEP who really are achieving excellence. The schools and the Mandarin teachers who are at the forefront of delivering the programme should be congratulated on making the programme such a triumph and the students should be immensely proud of their progress.
The second event, on Thursday 21st January, was an open event for the wider MFL community, press, schools, MEP students and some of their parents. Attendees had the opportunity to learn about how the MEP is structured, and the event showcased the success and the challenges faced by the programme during its first four years of delivery.
In total, around 300 guests joined us for the webinars. As well as having a high number of attendees, there was good audience engagement. It was great to see so many people interested in learning more about the programme!
We would like to thank everyone for joining and we hope that you found the webinars informative, insightful and enjoyable. If you were unable to join us and would like to listen and watch back, a recording of the second webinar can be found below.
Mandarin Excellence Programme Independent Evaluation launch from British Council Schools on Vimeo.
