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Can you teach a young learner to become more intellectually mature? 

When we think about preparing a young learner to study at university, language ability and academic qualifications are usually among the first things we consider. For an international student planning to study in English, there may be an additional focus on achieving a particular IELTS score or reaching B2 or C1 level. These are important objectives, but there is another area of development that can have an equally significant influence on how successfully a young person makes the transition into higher education: intellectual maturity. 

For an international young learner preparing for university, moving from B2 to C1 English can represent an important stage in their education. At B2, a student may already be a confident communicator. They can participate in conversations, explain opinions, understand relatively complex texts and manage many of the situations they encounter at school or while travelling. To an outside observer, they may already appear fluent. 

For an international young learner planning to study at university in an English-speaking country, language preparation can easily become dominated by numbers. What IELTS score does the university require? Is B2 sufficient, or does the student need to reach C1? What result must they achieve in writing, speaking, reading and listening? 

For younger learners studying in English, pronunciation can be one of the most noticeable - and sometimes intimidating - aspects of learning the language. A student may have a strong vocabulary, understand complicated grammar and perform well in written work, yet still find it difficult to communicate those abilities confidently when speaking. 

For parents considering an English course for a 16- to 19-year-old student, one question naturally comes before many others: how long should the course be? 

When professionals consider taking an intensive English course, one of the first questions they ask is also one of the most difficult to answer: how long should I study for? 

For ambitious international students considering studying in the UK, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are understandably attractive. Both have outstanding international reputations, centuries of academic history and highly distinctive approaches to undergraduate teaching. They are also two of the most competitive universities in the world to enter. 

Taking IELTS can be stressful, particularly when you need a specific score for university, work or a visa application. Imagine receiving your results and discovering that you achieved exactly the scores you needed in Listening, Reading and Speaking, but missed your required Writing score by half a band. Until relatively recently, the usual solution was frustrating: take the entire IELTS test again, including the three sections in which you had already achieved the required result. 

Reading novels is a great way to improve your English. It helps you encounter vocabulary in context, become familiar with sentence structures and develop a more natural understanding of how the language works. 

For teenage students studying in English, essay writing can be one of the most difficult skills to master. A student may have a good level of spoken English, a strong vocabulary and few problems understanding lessons, yet still find it surprisingly difficult to turn their ideas into a well-structured piece of extended writing. 

For many prospective students, hospitality management is an exciting but often misunderstood degree. While the word hospitality immediately brings hotels and restaurants to mind, the reality is that modern hospitality education is far broader than many people realise. It combines business management, leadership, customer experience, marketing, finance and international communication into a programme designed to prepare graduates for one of the world's largest and most dynamic industries.