>> My name is Charlene Earl and I'm the pathway manager for the pre-sessional courses at the University of Kent. >> The pre-sessional is a range of courses at different lengths depending on the student's level of language. >> We have four courses on offer. We do the 17 week pre-sessional course, the 10 week, a six week and a five week pre-sessional course for students holding an unconditional firm offer of study. >> The aim of the courses is to raise the language level of the students so that they can prepare themselves for undergraduate or postgraduate study commencing in the academic year. >> Key skills that students will develop and need to develop in order to prepare them for their main programme of study would be, for example, researching methods, using the library to find sources, integrating the sources into their assignments, using critical analysis and also referencing skills. >> But the main thing I think is to develop their confidence in their speaking skills to be able to express themselves clearly both within and outside of the classroom. >> There is a lot of support available for students not just university-wide but within the Centre for English and World Languages. >> We have a student support and experience officer who is available to meet with students. Any academic related concerns; they have their tutor or myself the programme manager. >> In terms of library and IT support, access to these areas are all year round so students have unlimited support with IT in the library as well. >> There's a range of programmes university-wide that students can progress on to. Whether it's undergraduate, postgraduate, or PhD research. >> Predominantly most of our pre-sessional students are wishing to progress to postgraduate study but we're hoping that undergraduate progression will increase in the coming years. >> We also deliver the pre-sessional courses, both in Medway and Brussels campus, so students wishing to progress to a programme of study in either of those campuses they have the opportunity to attend one of the pre-sessional courses delivered there, which is useful for students because they can familiarise themselves with the campus and use the facilities before they start their programme of study. >> I think as well as familiarising themselves with the university ahead of starting the main programme, it's useful to be able to learn more about the differences in academic study here in the UK in comparison to their own countries. To be able to know how to reference, to use the library, what support is on-hand and to learn more about the British culture so they can adjust accordingly before their programme starts is very useful. >> The University of Kent is situated in a good position, in that we're just an hour south of London and Kent is a very historic county. >> It's a very nice place to learn and to study and to spend summer months, as the weather is very nice and sunny here in Kent. >> We have quite a range of student nationalities studying on the pre-sessional courses. Last year we had 19 different nationalities ranging from Asia to Europe to Africa and the Middle East.