On March 21st, 2018, the fifth award ceremony for IELTS certificates was held following the results of Touchstone@MISIS, an English language learning program. During the program, the number of students with an advanced level of English (5.5 points or higher) increased from 150 to almost 400.
NUST MISIS has been partnering with Cambridge University Press since 2010. The language training program taught to Bachelor`s degree students is successful due to the fact that it is considered not as an abstract system of knowledge, but as a tool for obtaining the necessary abilities.
According to Lyudmila Gorodetskaya, senior consultant on educational materials at Cambridge University Press: “Both the Moscow office and our head office in the UK value cooperation with such prestigious universities, in which great attention is paid to English language studies. NUST MISIS is not just a partner for us, but also an example of joint work with a unique educational institution that improves its [methods] of teaching English by overcoming the contradictions between the engineering and humanitarian specialties”.
In only 8 years of cooperation, the NUST MISIS Department of Foreign Languages and Communication Technologies has managed to achieve impressive results. The number of students whose results are sufficient for admission to international academic programs has increased. The number of students who test at the C1 level of English language proficiency, which is equivalent to a native speaker, is also increasing annually.
This year, 6 students got 8 out of a possible 9 points on the exam: Anna Buyanova, Aleksander Genkin, Evgeniya Efimova, Timur Eshanov, Maxim Kim, and Sofya Pronnikova.
“Today, the quality of a person’s language skills are much more important than the mere presence of knowledge. Getting 8 or 9 points on the IELTS exams shows that a person has a good command of communication means, allowing them to increase their professional possibilities”, said Alexey Blinov, General Manager at Media Press, and a team captain on the television trivia show Chto? Gde? Kogda? (What? Where? When?).
Touchstone@MISIS is a joint project of NUST MISIS and Cambridge University Press that has no analogues in the Russian sphere of education. After 4 years of English studies, the project’s students take IELTS, one of the world`s most popular international exams.
“The importance of programs like Touchstone@MISIS is of great significance for both the promotion of technical specialties and the potential career paths of each student. I think that the program’s graduates have an excellent basis for professional implementation and development of Russian industry at local, regional, and national level”, noted Neil McGowan, Skoltech consultant on English language matters.
