ACA-2015_English_Taught

Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
Bernd Wächter (ACA)
This is the third study which the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) is
devoting to the theme of English-medium instruction in Europe. Like the first
two reports, this one is the result of a cooperative effort between ACA and
the Group of Experts for Empirical Studies (GES), a German company for
empirical research in the field of higher education. For the first time, however,
a third institutional partner was involved – StudyPortals BV, a Dutch start-up
company specialising in online information tools on a wide range of aspects
of the internationalisation of European higher education.
As in the past, the editors of the present study are Bernd Wächter and Friedhelm
Maiworm. But they are just the tip of the iceberg. Considerable parts of
the study have been written by Irina Ferencz and Queenie K.H. Lam of ACA.
StudyPortals BV in general and Joran van Aart and Tiina Niemi in particular,
have supported the project in a major way by contacting the Programme
Directors of English-Taught Programmes across Europe. The research team
also had great support from Marija Mitic, who worked at the ACA Secretariat
in 2014 and provided highly welcome help in the final phase of writing up this
study.
However, these three organisations, to whom the authors of this study belong,
are by no means the only fathers and mothers of the present study. Many
contributed considerably to the present publication. First among these is a
network of renowned experts on higher education in general and Englishmedium
instruction in particular, who formed the Quality Council of the project.
This body was chaired and steered by Ulrich Teichler (Kassel, Germany),
whose impartial, thorough and at any time very robust advice was invaluable.
We are further indebted to the other members of the Quality Council, who
likewise put considerable time and energy into advising the team of authors
on the basic design as well as on the draft study. These were: Gordon Cheung
(Hong Kong), Michael Gaebel (Brussels), Christian Mossmann (Exeter), Sabine
Pendl (Graz), Rok Primožič (Brussels), Stefan Jahnke (Brussels), Leasa Weimer
(Jyväskylä), and, last but not at all least, Karen M. Lauridsen (Aarhus).
Karen M. Lauridsen and many of her colleagues in Europe who cooperate in
the framework of the IntlUni Project also supported the researcher team by
providing highly important contextual information about linguistic and intercultural
issues in the ‘international classroom’. We are further indebted to colleagues
in national ministries for education and to researchers into higher education
from all over Europe for providing us with information about the legal
and regulatory framework for English-medium instruction in their countries.
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