The LARA Programme

The cycle of quality assessments undertaken by HEFCE in 1995-96 was the first to award numerical grades in each of six key aspects of teaching provision (Curriculum design, content and organisation; Teaching, learning and assessment; Student progression and achievement; Student support and guidance; Learning resources; Quality assurance and enhancement). Each HEI being assessed in modern languages, whether under separate languages or as a whole, was required to state its aims and objectives for each aspect and, during the assessment visit, to provide evidence to demonstrate the quality of its teaching.

Since a period of residence abroad is a normal feature of any degree in which the study of a foreign language is a major element, the assessors included it amongst their central concerns. In every HEI, its rôle and mode of operation were investigated, methods of preparation and assessment were scrutinised and the experience of students was evaluated.

The reports published on individual HEIs revealed that there were a significant number in which the period of residence abroad had been well thought out, was properly organised and managed and made a valuable contribution to the learning process over the course as a whole. However, the overview reports issued for each language group made it plain that those were a minority and that in very many cases elsewhere there were serious shortcomings which needed to be addressed. The general criticisms concerned not so much matters of preparation or student support while abroad but rather the fundamental questions of aims, objectives and the integration of the period abroad with the rest of the course:

German	"Just over a third have established clear objectives for residence abroad and have integrated it well into the remainder of the curriculum."
	"a quarter of the programmes show little attempt made to ensure the relevance or quality of the courses students follow while abroad."
Iberian	"Often though, the aims and objectives of the period abroad are not fully identified and explained to students."
	"Many institutions are criticised for their lack of design, planning, operation and evaluation of the residence abroad and its place in the curriculum as a whole."
Italian	"the potential benefits are not fully realised in all institutions. In such cases, more needs to be done to ensure that the objectives of the experience are clarified."
French	"In a small number of institutions, the assessors were impressed by the wide range of opportunities on offer, the organisational structure developed for the allocation, preparation and monitoring of the placements, and the subsequent dissemination of students' experiences. Such arrangements help to ensure that all students get the best from this major part of their programme. However, despite its undoubted importance, the assessors found that only about 30 per cent of providers had successfully integrated the experience into the curriculum. It is also rare for the assessment of the period abroad to make a significant contribution to a student's degree classification."

The overview reports constituted in effect an agenda for improvement in the teaching of modern languages and, in the second phase of HEFCE's Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (FDTL) programme, under which HEIs were invited to bid for support for developmental projects in modern languages, it was inevitable that residence abroad would feature as a major issue. A consortium of universities (Anglia, Middlesex, Oxford Brookes [lead institution], Thames Valley, West of England) submitted a bid for funding to run a thirty-month project under the title Learning and Residence Abroad (LARA). The primary aims were

to identify existing good practice across the HE sector;
to elaborate models of improved practice in those areas identified by HEFCE assessors as revealing weakness in a significant number of institutions, particularly the integration of the period of residence abroad into the rest of the course in terms of curriculum, preparation, assessment and accreditation. It was intended to work collaboratively with a wider circle of partner HEIs and to use the experience of students actually abroad to test and refine the models;
to recommend ways in which the best practice could be applied across a range of types of course and institution.

The LARA project was approved and funded by FDTL for the period October 1997-March 2000, together with two other projects dealing with residence abroad, namely the Interculture Project based at Lancaster University and the Residence Abroad project based at Portsmouth University.

The first essential stage was to establish the state of current practice regarding residence abroad across the HE sector and, in collaboration with the Residence Abroad project, LARA devised a questionnaire seeking information on all aspects of the operation (course structures, aims and objectives, preparation, types of placement, assessment, etc., etc.). It was inevitably long and complex but the response from colleagues in language departments was positive and thorough. The LARA team would like to express their gratitude to all those who devoted time and energy to completing the questionnaires, thereby helping to build up a detailed picture of the experience of students and staff involved in residence abroad.

The results of the survey have been published as part of the National Residence Abroad Database (NRAD), again established by LARA in collaboration with the Residence Abroad project. Under 'Current Practice', details are given of the residence abroad requirements and practice of each course for which a questionnaire was returned. The site also contains a searchable database of extracts from the QA reports covering residence abroad and a searchable bibliography, and is intended to serve as a source of all kinds of information of use to those with a stake in residence abroad - students, HE staff, prospective students, parents, school advisers.

Armed with the evidence provided by the NRAD survey, the LARA team was able to recognise the aspects of residence abroad into which the majority of HEIs had been putting effort and resources but also to identify those areas that still represented weak spots in the pattern of provision. The latter were principally

aspects of preparation for the period of residence abroad which were in particular need of development in the light of changing course patterns, notably academic briefing for those going on study-placements and the acquisition of necessary skills for students on work-placements;
ways in which the inherent pedagogical problems of the period abroad could be overcome by training the students to take responsibility for their own independent learning in the two key areas of language development and intercultural learning;
the assessment and accreditation of the experience of residence abroad (linguistic and academic progress, personal development) including the use of learning agreements, still in an embryonic state across the sector.

Six sub-projects involving teams of staff from the member institutions of the LARA consortium were set up to develop materials or models of practice under the following headings:

Academic Briefing
Language Tasks and Strategies
Work Placements
Intercultural Learning
Learning Agreements
Assessment and Accreditation.

Each sub-project worked with staff and students in a wider group of HEIs and, where appropriate, ran trials of the materials they produced involving students either abroad or about to go abroad. (For details of partner HEIs, see the LARA consortium.)

The outcomes of the sub-projects take the form of teaching and learning materials as well as reports and models of effective practice.

In order to maximise the effectiveness of its contacts with the HE sector, LARA collaborated with the Interculture and Residence Abroad projects in setting up the Residence Abroad Matters (RAM) group. RAM organised four regional workshops (Bristol, London, Newcastle, Salford) in the spring of 1998, open to staff from all HEIs, to stimulate discussion on the issues surrounding residence abroad and to learn from the experience across the sector. Notes on the discussions at the workshops can be found on the RAM website. The RAM group organised a further round of workshops (one in London for budget-holders and heads of quality assurance, three in Aston, London and Sheffield for staff in language departments) in the spring of 2000 to report on the outcomes of the three projects and to involve colleagues in ensuring that the momentum in the development and improvement of students' experience was maintained.