Every summer, universities across the UK run pre-sessional English programmes with the best of intentions. And every summer, the same problems quietly resurface.

I’ve directed a range of pre-sessional programmes for years — both face-to-face and online, undergraduate and postgraduate. And while I love this work, I’d be lying if I said the sector always gets it right.

Here are five signs it might be time for a fresh pair of eyes on your programme.

1. The materials feel dry — and students know it
If your reading texts could have been written in 1998 and your tasks feel like box-ticking exercises, students will disengage. They can tell when something was designed for compliance rather than learning. Materials should feel alive, current, and relevant to the academic world they’re about to enter.

2. The skills being taught don’t reflect real classroom demands
Pre-sessional isn’t just about grammar and vocabulary. Students need to be ready to function — to ask questions in seminars, to challenge an argument respectfully, to work in groups with people from completely different academic traditions. If your programme isn’t building those real, practical skills, it’s only doing half the job.

3. Nobody has reviewed the programme in years
Programmes calcify. What worked five years ago may not reflect current student profiles, current academic expectations, or current technology. If your team is too busy delivering the programme to step back and evaluate it, that’s completely understandable — and it’s exactly when an external perspective becomes valuable.

4. There’s never enough time
Sound familiar? When everything feels rushed, it’s often a sign that the programme is trying to do too much — or that priorities haven’t been clearly defined. A structured review can help identify what actually matters and what can be cut without losing impact.

5. Online and face-to-face are treated as the same thing
They’re not. Students learning online need different scaffolding, different interaction design, and different ways of building community. If your online programme is just your face-to-face programme on Zoom, there’s real room for improvement.

If any of this sounds familiar, I’d love to have a conversation. Sometimes an hour with someone outside your institution is all it takes to see things clearly.

Get in touch!