BALEAP was founded in 1972 as SELMOUS (Special English Language Materials for Overseas University Students) and changed its name to The British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes in 1989 and then to BALEAP in 2010 dropping the full name and meaning. What many of us noticed is that whenever we spoke to people who were not familiar with BALEAP we found ourselves having to explain that it was no longer the full name that was in use, but only the acronym.  

We decided that it was an appropriate time to consider a possible name change, recognising that this was not a new topic and had been raised on numerous occasions previously. In August 2022 we sent out a survey to the BALEAP membership asking for initial thoughts and comments. The results of which were then shared with numerous focus groups.

The majority agreed that a change was due, but most felt that we need to keep the ‘EAP’ as part of the change. A smaller number thought we should change EAP to Academic Education/Communication or Academic Literacies.

Subsequently four different focus groups were held:

31st October 2022 – BAS Assessors Focus Group 

Relevant comments:

  • The ‘L’ was a problem as we should reference teachers/tutors, not lecturers.
  • The fact that we want international members raises concerns about using the word ‘British’. There were suggestions that we include either ‘Global’ or ‘International’ for this reason.
  • It was agreed that whatever is used should be easily understood/explained
  • The need to consider our focus and our link to JEAP, which fits well. The EAP is important.
  • The field is changing, and Academic Literacies might be more accurate.
    It was suggested that ‘Global’ may be more inclusive than ‘International’ due to institutional student categories.
  • The name should be something that ‘does what it says on the tin’ and accessibility issues are important too, e.g. The green on the logo may be difficult for those who are colour blind.
    Should we bring in specialist marketing consultants?
28 November 2022 – Directors Focus Group 

Relevant comments:

  • ‘British’ although descriptive it is not particularly inclusive and could be seen as a barrier. 
    Do we want name to be descriptive or aspirational?
  • Although Lecturer may be a relatively prestigious title to some, we don’t lecture so perhaps practitioners would be more suitable.
  • Agreed that we need something that doesn’t require a level of explanation that’s required as it’s quite cumbersome; sometimes we only have seconds to influence and could lose an audience if taking time up to explain acronym/name.
  • A lot is involved, and it is more than just changing bank accounts requiring Marketing and Comms in the rebrand.
  • Have to be clear about what trying to achieve - are we trying to achieve conflicting things with International reach and transparency to those not in our organisation.
  • Whatever it is changed to still needs to work for JEAP and BALEAP Accreditation Scheme.
  • ‘British’ not that important, but always prefer something simpler
  • Accreditation is important and perhaps there is a need to embrace ‘British’- it may help support the ability of the recruitment and international office in universities to recruit and their ability to influence faculty to promote our courses (a recruitment tool).
  • Need to make BALEAP weightier so countries accept it re accreditation
  • Going to cost a lot of money and should not discount the amount of administrative work that will be involved.
  • A name change can take years to percolate through.
  • Are we being presumptuous by including global or international?
15 December 2022 – International Focus Group 

Relevant comments:

  • The need to make the name of the association more inclusive and international.
  • Remove Lecturers but keep EAP.
  • Strongly in favour of dropping the British element.
  • The aim is global, but the representation is not yet global, so it’s the name but also perhaps the way in which the organisation works that we might want to review.
  • When we were accredited some of the comments supposed a British context and didn’t fit our context at all but can see that changes in the BAS scheme do reflect that [different contexts] more now.
  • Consider the idea of ‘chapters’ like TESOL had a chapter e.g., TESOL Arabia or TESOL Spain. A real global sense comes from that, you can organize your local establishment but also have links to the global organisation.
  • In our institution lecturers are called ‘teaching fellows’ and this is very important (our department is seen on the academic side), but the writing centre tutors are called ‘instructors’ and get paid less.
  • Observation that BALEAP has people who research as well as teach EAP hence ‘researchers’ and ‘practitioners’ but like in the tag line we have the idea of ‘professionals’ which covers both.
  • ‘Practitioners’ – not a good idea as it would lower the status and we’ve been fighting against that successfully.
  • Remove any reference to identity – ‘lecturers’ or ‘practitioners’ as the moment you give a name to the people who should be in the organisation, you create division or problems.
  • No question about keeping EAP as it differentiates us from the USA.
17 February 2023 – Individual Members Focus Group (7 members UK & Internationally based)

Relevant comments:

  • Acronym has failed in that everyone asks what it stands for.
  • Name should mean something - having an acronym that doesn’t stand for anything makes it complicated.
  • British problematic, colonial and certain redundancy in having British and English.
  • Keen to change to something global, but it is interesting about what people are saying about the ‘British’ badge.
  • Support the idea around the word ‘lecturer’ as spend a lot of time trying to get my teachers that academic status they deserve.
  • ‘Lecturers’ is the most problematic as it’s limiting and needs to be replaced with a more inclusive name such as ‘practitioners.
  • Names are snapshots – what's the immediate impression or impact on the receiver.
  • Lecturer is problematic and the British seems quite exclusionary in the context I’ve worked in outside British system.
  • ‘Practitioner’ is better than ‘lecturer’, but I would like to remove it altogether as it sounds like an organisation that supports teachers like the NUS.
  • Either need a term that encompasses all the names or don’t have the person at all in the name.
  • Change EAP to ALL. EAP used to be considered a sub-division of ESAP but we do more than that – a whole range of things.
  • Remove EAP (English) altogether and have language and literacies.
  • Global – have a strapline ‘embracing global provision of English’.
  • Changing the name is not the biggest change. It’s how we continue the new identity e.g., if we look at the make-up of BALEAP exec do we have global representative. If we change it what’s the next step?
  • Is it more ‘offensive’ to our international community to make that assumption that we are the epicentre to claim to be global as opposed to using the term ‘British’?
  • We need to acknowledge the wider professional landscape that’s occurring in the UK now with private providers and contractual issues. We need to be extremely explicit in our cause and ignite the flame among colleagues.
  • There are issues in the UK that aren’t of concern to the wider EAP context.
  • Name + British, Name + other countries – add on which would allow other organisations to use BALEAP as a model but to add some diversity. Affiliated to – a bit like the SIGs
  • Difficult to choose a name that will do all of this for everybody.

A final focus group was held at the AGM of the BALEAP 2023 conference at the University of Warwick. Numerous names were put forward for people to choose from and it was finally decided that we should recognise and embrace our history as the British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes, thus reverting to our full name. Given our British routes we also 

We are now re-embracing our full name once again and although we realise that for some ‘British’ may appear to be a colonial term this is certainly not our intention. Some of us also have different views on how we see ourselves – perhaps not as lecturers, but as practitioners or tutors or teachers. 

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) itself is a heritage term that may not be used in all contexts. What sits at the heart of EAP as understood by BALEAP is a dedication to enhancing academic communication skills through the medium of English in particular institutional contexts. Alternative terms for equivalent or broadly analogous provision in other parts of the world include, English for Educational Development, Academic Literacies, Academic Communication, Applied language for specific disciplines or an Extended Curriculum programme.


While many UK programmes tend to work exclusively with international students for whom English is a second or additional language, the purview of EAP provision is increasingly diverse. Many centres and practitioners work increasingly with first-language English students, research postgraduates and university staff.  BALEAP hopes to promote developmental conversations around the varied realities of particular provision and particular institutional contexts, as well as supporting the professional development of those involved in learning, teaching, scholarship and research in EAP. BALEAP also wants to work in collaboration with other organizations whose areas of focus overlap and work towards similar interests as ours.