English UK's financial year runs from 1 January to 31 December. Rates of subscription are agreed annually by the membership in the autumn either at a General Meeting (normally an EGM) or by postal ballot.
Subscriptions are made up of two components: a Basic Subscription (to include any contribution to the Student Emergency Support Fund), and a graduated Supplementary Subscription based on the size of the centre's English language provision, calculated in terms of student weeks or equivalent.
Please refer to the information sheet entitled 'Student Week Calculation Example' for an explanation as to how a student week figure may be calculated.
Members are also invoiced (at agreed discounted rates) for the annual British Council Accreditation UK fee, and, where appropriate, for the Copyright Licensing Agency fee.
For private sector members, invoices for the Basic Subscription are sent out in January/February and invoices for the Supplementary Subscription are sent out in June/July.
Under the Rules of English UK it is a requirement that private sector members pay annual dues to the association by direct debit. The Basic Subscription element is taken in 5 tranches from March through to July and Supplementary Subscriptions, British Council and CLA fees from August through to December.
For state sector members, English UK subscription invoices (basic and supplementary) are issued in the first quarter of the year and invoices for Accreditation Scheme fees are issued in the second quarter.
Basic Subscriptions
The Basic Subscription is the same flat rate for the majority of individual member centres (£1,315). However two reduced rates apply to those centres which have declared fewer than 250 or 500 student weeks respectively. Additionally, special reduced rates apply to Group members (see section on Groups).
|
Number of Student Weeks |
Basic Subscription |
|
Less than 250 |
£ 765 |
|
251-500 |
£ 985 |
|
501 + |
£ 1,315 |
Supplementary Subscriptions
In addition to the Basic Subscription, members pay a Supplementary Subscription charge. This payment is assessed by reference to the size of the institution measured in ELT student-weeks* taught in the previous calendar year for private sector members, or by a proxy measure (based on teacher timetabled hours and a class size conversion factor related to all foreign students who underwent English language tuition on eligible courses) for the previous academic year for state sector members.
The supplementary subscription charge for 2012 is as per the following table:
|
Band |
Number of student weeks |
Supplementary Subscription |
|
1 |
< 1,000 |
£ 0 |
|
2 |
1,001- 2,000 |
£ 305 |
|
3 |
2,001- 6,000 |
£ 610 |
|
4 |
6,001- 10,000 |
£ 810 |
|
5 |
10,001- 20,000 |
£ 1,810 |
|
6 |
20,001- 30,000 |
£ 2,740 |
|
7 |
30,001- 40,000 |
£ 3,730 |
|
8 |
40,001- 70,000 |
£ 4,940 |
|
9 |
70,001+ |
£ 6,040 |
* One student week is calculated as one student undergoing not less than ten hours of tuition in one week
Group Subscriptions
Groups consisting of accredited centres in the same ownership may apply to be treated as a group, in which case they shall pay:
- £1,315 for the group; plus
- £1090 for the first two centres owned by the group (i.e. £2365 for a group of 2 centres)
- £870 each for the third and all subsequent centres
- A Supplementary Subscription based on the aggregated total of the student weeks taught by all centres in the group.
Applications to be treated as a group must be made or renewed in January each year. The Chief Executive has discretion to decide what arrangements constitute a 'group' and continue to constitute a group. Should a group withdraw its direct debit mandate, its individual centres will be assessed separately for their Supplementary Subscriptions.
CLA Fee
Where applicable, for private sector members there will also be a discounted payment to the Copyright Licensing Agency for the centre's licence fee based on the student weeks declared.
The discount that members benefit from is substantial - greater than 50%. For 2012 the Member rate is £0.3182 (plus vat) per student week.
Accreditation Scheme Fee
The Annual Accreditation UK Fee is also now banded according to student week figures, therefore English UK no longer invoices for the British Council fees together with the English UK Basic Subscription as we did prior to 2006. Instead we invoice later in the year once all members have returned their annual student week declarations.
These fees are payable to the British Council but collected, at a discount, by English UK, with members charged £100 less than non-affiliated centres. The Accreditation UK Scheme's financial year runs from 1 April to 31 March.
Non-affiliated centres pay the British Council an additional (£50) annual contribution to the Student Emergency Support Fund (SESF) which is managed by English UK. For English UK members this charge is already included in their English UK subscription fee.
The British Council has yet to confirm the rates for 2012/13 but for 2011/12 they were as follows:
|
Annual Accreditation Fee 2011/12 |
Standard* |
English UK |
|
|
Band 1 |
<2,000 student weeks (Small) |
£650 |
£550 |
|
Band 2 |
2-5,000 student weeks (Medium) |
£700 |
£600 |
|
Band 3 |
>5,000 student weeks (Large) |
£750 |
£650 |
| SESF | *A £50 contribution to Student Emergency Support Fund will be invoiced with the Annual Fee |
n/a |
|
** The cut-off date for receiving the discounted Accreditation UK and CLA charges is 31 March.
