Presessional Boarding Pass

Highlights

Presessional Boarding Pass was the 5-week pre-arrival course we ran entirely online for Business and Management students from 2011-2019.

Presessional Boarding Pass was the first, wholly-online component of a 16-week Presessional Course in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) for international students preparing for MSc or MBA study in the Southampton Business School at the University of Southampton.

This intensive five-week online programme, which was tutored by EAP specialists based in the UK, took up to 140 students each year. In the nine years the course ran, over 700 international students successfully completed the course online before arriving in Southampton to complete the final 11 weeks of their presessional course, face-to-face.

Students taking the five-week online course were required to have a 5.5 overall IELTS score with a 5.0 for either (or both) Reading and Writing. Presessional Boarding Pass concentrated on core concepts in academic writing and reading, together with vocabulary and grammar development and study skills awareness. Course content drew on examples from Business, and students engaged with interactive learning materials, tutor-facilitated discussions and chat sessions in preparation for weekly reading or writing assignments. Students were able to check their own progress each week using a grammar and vocabulary review test. Videos featuring lecturers and international students from the Southampton Business School also helped course participants prepare for their future life and study at the University.

Student course evaluations and satisfaction levels were consistently very high. Here is a small sample of some of the students' feedback about their experience of learning on Presessional Boarding Pass:

Interested in running a similar course?

Our Prepare for Presessional course, which follows the same 5-week structure but with material that is suitable for all subject areas, available to license from us.