What is UNILANG?
The UNILANG recognition scheme serves to help UK university students articulate and translate what their language learning outcomes mean in terms of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). It provides a recognised certificate that will inform students’ CVs and will explain to careers services and employers the value of their languages.
The scheme runs alongside the award of credits or other HE awards by the HEI concerned. UNILANG is also designed to assist course providers to map their courses onto a transparent and translatable model. By using the existing external examiner system, approved examiners are able to verify that the language learning outcomes publicised in the course descriptions correspond to a specific level of the CEFR.
UNILANG is not designed to replace well-established and rigorous certification schemes for specific languages such as CILS, DELE, DELF-DALF, Goethe Institute, HSK or Japan Foundation. Where these are available, students may still be encouraged to sit these examinations as they will carry greater recognition in the target language countries.
What does UNILANG work involve?
External examiners who have approved UNILANG status are asked to map students’ learning outcomes on to an appropriate CEFR descriptor. In this way, the learning outcomes for a language course receive external validation and students receive an attested CEFR grade in the form of a certificate of recognition.
What about students who perform poorly?
On most courses, not all students will attain a level of competence which aligns to the CEFR descriptor. So whilst they may pass the course (40%), their competence in the target language will not have attained the expected CEFR level for them to be awarded a certificate of recognition.
The external examiner must therefore determine the % mark required for the mapping to be justified and for certificates to be issued. This mark will vary depending on the level of the course, and it will need to be agreed with the awarding institution. It is recommended that this mark is displayed on the course description.
A helpful presentation which provides information for prospective UNILANG examiners is available here
Who are UNILANG examiners?
External examiners who have already been appointed by a higher educational institution to ensure that assessment and examination procedures have been fairly and properly implemented and that standards of awards and student performances are at least comparable with those in equivalent higher education institutions.
External examiners who are UNILANG approved, in addition to the above, are able to validate the alignment of learning outcomes with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR) within their specialist language area.
Do all courses that my institution offers to students need to have their learning outcomes validated?
Most institutions will only have a small number of courses in each language that map well on to the CEFR descriptors. These are the ones that you can ask your UNILANG examiners to validate.
It is expected that, in many institutions, only certain ‘flagship’ courses will be externally validated and will be able to offer UNILANG certificates to successful learners.
Who issues UNILANG certificates?
Certificates are issued by the student’s institution and carry both the institutional logo and the UNILANG logo. The detailed design of the certificate is determined by the awarding institution, but the certificates may carry the UNILANG examiners’ signatures. A sample certificate, which can be adapted, can be downloaded from this website.
How can students and tutors/lecturers know whether the learning outcomes for a particular course are UNILANG validated?
Where the mapping of learning outcomes for courses has been validated, a UNILANG logo may appear on the course description, alongside the stated learning outcomes. These can be expressed as a CEFR level. A description might also include the statement: “Students who successfully complete the course will receive a UNILANG certificate”.
What if a student performs differently in different skills?
It is suggested and expected that certificates will show a global level of attainment.
However, the UNILANG system allows the profiling of different skills on students’ certificates. It may be shown, for example, that a certain student performs at level B1 for speaking, but only at A2 for writing. Assessing skills separately will mean quite a bit of additional work for the external examiner and this would need to be negotiated.
Is there a register of approved UNILANG examiners?
All approved examiners receive a unique UNILANG examiner number and their details are maintained in a database managed by AULC. Institutions may cross-check with AULC to confirm that a prospective external examiner has been approved by the UNILANG Certification Committee and that their UNILANG examiner number is valid.
How can an institution recruit a UNILANG approved external examiner?
The simplest way to do this is to require that prospective external examiners are (preferably) UNILANG approved when recruiting them.
What does the approval process involve?
Examiners who also wish to become a UNILANG examiner need to write a statement in which they attest to their professional experience working with the CEFR within their respective language area. Guidance notes for this are available here. The UNILANG Certification Committee approves the applications.
Is there a separate fee for obtaining UNILANG validation?
Where the external examiner is appointed to an institution as a subject or programme examiner, there is no additional fee, since they will be remunerated through the normal external examiners system.
Does UNILANG run training events?
It is expected that UNILANG will be able to run standardisation workshops in specific languages in the near future.
What is the UNILANG Certification Committee?
The Certification Committee currently comprises six members, and a Chair, who are senior professionals in the field of language teaching in the higher education sector. Their current role is to:
- steer and shape the scheme as it becomes established
- approve external examiner applications
- oversee ongoing development and improvement
It is envisaged that members of the Committee will serve a term of three years renewable for a second term.