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:

In this course, I learnt a large amount of new knowledge preparing for my Masters [degree programme] and enjoyed a good online learning experience.
I like to chat and discuss with my classmates and teacher to make me understand the lessons clearly. Also, I like to study online because I can manage my time to study and submit the assignments perfectly.
...the weekly quizzes and course...can help me learn many English rules and skills. The quizzes can help me review the lessons and make me remember clearly.
In my opinion, the course is perfect for learning English. The online course taught us how to organise our time.
The online course is important and useful for me. I can study whenever convenient. Thanks for the tutor's advice and for being so helpful.
The chat room - it made me feel I was not alone during the process and solve some questions directly. Besides, the chat with international classmates is fresh.
The tutor's feedback of assignment and the answers on discussion forums...are very clear, and the advice of feedback is very useful to improve the assignment.
I think the online lessons provide information that has good organisation every week and [is supported] with assignments and quizzes - There are many examples in the lessons and they are easy to understand.

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.