About Us

BULATS is a collaborative venture between University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations and three leading European language institutes: the Alliance Française, the Goethe-Institut and the Universidad de Salamanca, ensuring the rigour of the tests, the accuracy of each language version and the reliability of the results.

These organisations are all founder members of ALTE, the Association of Language Testers in Europe, which develop language examinations designed to test ability in the mother tongue of their own country or region. Founded in 1989 by the Universities of Cambridge and Salamanca, ALTE has grown from eight to 28 members representing 24 European languages.

ALTE was set up in order to promote the trans-European recognition of language certification by encouraging and developing common standards for all stages of the language testing process. The ALTE Framework of Levels for Language Ability was developed in response to ALTE's objectives and has gained currency throughout Europe as the common standard to which all language qualifications should be linked. The Framework also corresponds to the Common European Framework established by the Council of Europe.

Alliance Française
Alliance Française is a state-approved, non-profit making organisation, founded in 1883. It is dedicated to the teaching and dissemination of French language and culture, and has over 1300 centres serving 380,000 students in 133 countries. All over the world the Alliance offers a variety of cultural activities and courses at all levels for people of all ages and occupations. It also offers seven different diplomas in language, civilisation, literature, business French and commercial translation, all set and marked in Paris.
www.alliancefr.org

The Goethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut is a non-profit-making, publicly funded organisation based in Munich. It was founded in 1951 to promote a wider knowledge of the German language abroad and to foster cultural co-operation with other countries. A world-wide organisation, it now has over 140 centres in 76 countries and helps over 108,000 students. The Goethe-Institut plays an important role in providing access to German language and culture all over the world and offers a range of German language examinations, ranging from 'threshold' (basic) level to very advanced, and leading to internationally recognised qualifications in German.
www.goethe.de

Universidad de Salamanca
Founded in 1218, the Universidad de Salamanca has a strong international scientific and intellectual reputation, due in part to its promotion of Spanish language and culture, and its teaching and research activities in the field of Spanish as a Foreign Language. The University is responsible for developing, setting, marking and evaluating the official Diplomas in Spanish as a Foreign Language which are issued and certified by the Instituto Cervantes.
www.usal.es

University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations
Cambridge ESOL has the world's leading range of qualifications in English for Speakers of Other Languages and delivers over 2 million assessments in 130 countries worldwide. Cambridge ESOL is part of Cambridge Assessment - one of the world's largest and best known educational and assessment agencies. It develops formal examination syllabuses across a broad range of academic and vocational subject areas which are used around the world as part of national education programmes. Cambridge Assessment is a department of the University of Cambridge.
www.CambridgeESOL.org

For an up to date list of ALTE members, contact ALTE at www.alte.org

BULATS French Newsletter / Bulletin d'information de BULATS