UCL CLIE commissioned for preparation course expertise by Saudi Arabian University

After a request from UCL Consultancy, a delegation of CLIE staff were invited to Saudi Arabia in October to review Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University's (IABFU) Preparatory Year Programme (PYP).

Dr Christine Hoffmann lead a team of five colleagues, including Martin Hall, Anne Moore, Bernard Pfister and Jane Skirving, for a three day scoping visit aiming to help IABFU create an action plan and identify ways to strengthen their preparatory programme.

The PYP enrols a staggering 4000+ students per year, studying on various tracks, including: Health, Engineering, Science, and Humanities; all of which are taught in English.

During the visit, the team:

• observed just under 30 lessons
• held focus group meetings with PYP staff and students
• met some of last year's student cohort and a number of College staff who deliver the undergraduate programmes that PYP students progress to
• ran simultaneous workshops on the male and female campuses which explored common themes of preparatory year programmes, together with the specific challenges of the IABFU context.

The next step is for the group to deliver a formal report for the IABFU to consider, identifying gaps and weaknesses that are constraining the potential achievements of their PYP and recommending how these gaps might be filled.

Further updates about this international collaboration will be included in due course.