Bournemouth is an English seaside town on the south coast with about seven miles of sand, and it has been taking language students for long enough that the town is organised around them. That is not a small thing: the cafés, the sports clubs and the host families are used to people whose English is halfway there, which lowers the cost of the first conversation considerably.
The beach is the centre of the case for coming here. It is a genuine beach — wide, sandy, with a pier and cliffs behind it — and in summer it is where the town lives. The practical version for a student is that the free thing to do after class is a good one, every day from May to September, and the walk along the front from Bournemouth to Boscombe and back is the town's default evening.
Behind the beach the town is compact and cheap to move around. The centre, the gardens that run inland along the stream, the schools and most host families sit within a walk or a short bus ride of each other. The money a student spends on transport in London goes on something else here, and the difference over a term is not small. London is about two hours by train when you want it.
The setting is better than the town's reputation suggests. The New Forest starts just to the east — open heath, free-roaming ponies, and reachable by train. The Jurassic Coast runs west towards Lyme Regis with some of the best coastal walking in England. Poole harbour and Sandbanks are on the other side of the town.
Two things to weigh. Bournemouth is a town, not a city, and students who want a large urban centre will feel that within a few weeks — the answer most take is the train to London or Bristol on a free weekend. And it is seasonal: the summer is busy, international and expensive, while the winter is quiet, cheaper and much more British, which some students actively prefer for exactly that reason.
Studying here. Topstudy works with three schools in Bournemouth. Kaplan Bournemouth, Bayswater Bournemouth and ETC Bournemouth each offer General English, Semi-Intensive English and Intensive English, so every weekly load is available in a town small enough that the school you choose does not commit you to a long commute.
Accommodation. Host families are the traditional choice in Bournemouth and the town has a long history of them, which is the main reason it has been a language-student destination for decades. Kaplan Bournemouth also places students in the Landsdowne Point residence, near the centre. A host family gives you English at breakfast and dinner as well as in class — in a town this size that is the option most likely to change how quickly you improve; a residence gives you your own room and other students in the building.
Who it suits. Students who want the beach to be part of the term rather than a holiday afterwards; anyone whose budget would be stretched by London; and students who learn faster in a household than in a building full of other learners.
Get a Quote Now
