English language use at Denmark’s internationalized universities: is there a correlation between volume of English use and world rank?

Hultgren, Anna Kristina (2013). English language use at Denmark’s internationalized universities: is there a correlation between volume of English use and world rank? In: English Language in teaching in European Higher Education, 19-21 Apr 2013, Copenhagen.

URL: http://www.englishineurope.postgrad.shef.ac.uk/res...

Abstract

Predominantly non-English-using universities in the competitive European zone of research and higher education tend to equate ‘world class’ with an increase in the use of English in key areas. However, little is known about whether there is in fact a correlation between the extent to which such universities use English and their place on world university ranking lists. In the proposed paper, I present recently compiled statistics derived from a variety of sources (government and university reports and national library databases) on how widespread the use of English is in three areas at Denmark's eight universities: teaching, academic publishing and the proportion of international students and staff. Using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, I then examine the statistical correlation between the amount of English used by each university in these three areas and its place on eight different university ranking lists. All data has been collected; analyses will be carried out in the weeks to come and results will be revealed at the conference. The findings may shed light on scholarly as well as political debates in the Nordic countries on the value and status of English in an interconnected world.

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