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| Abdul Aziz Bayoumi, ABP vice-chairman (left) with Miles Lovelace, ABP director |
Qatar Foundation’s Academic Bridge Programme (ABP), a foundation programme designed to help students develop their language and other skills before beginning university, has been granted full recognition by the Commission on English Language Programme Accreditation (CEA).
The CEA accreditation agency is the only US body recognised by the United States Department of Education for accrediting foundation and language development programmes – both in the United States and internationally.
Accreditation by the CEA will make it easier for students from Qatar to apply to schools in the USA and other countries, as they will be recognised as having satisfactory English language skills, as well as math, science and computer skills which the programme also caters for.
Miles Lovelace, director of the ABP, said that the programme strengthens the student body in Education City by improving their English skills, which were sometimes lacking in the past. The one-year programme currently has 300 students enrolled, from which 95% of them will graduate to move on to Qatar University, Education City institutions or universities in the USA, UK and elsewhere.
In a speech at an event marking the successful accreditation, Lovelace said: “At present almost 100 foundation programmes have been accredited in the USA and about ten similar programmes in other countries, such as Greece, Egypt, and now Qatar (which now has three accredited foundation programmes). More than 90 additional foundation and language programmes are in the process of seeking CEA accreditation at this very moment.”
Lovelace added: “Accreditation means that the ABP has been given a seal of approval that recognises the high standards in place and that they have met the 52 rigorous standards which CEA evaluates.”
