General English

Short courses in General English.

Choose the level that's right for you...

We're delighted you're interested in learning General English!

If you have no previous experience of the language, please enrol on any of the Beginners Step 1 Courses.
For those with some knowledge of the language, please take a look at our Language Level Self-Assessment for General English.
Still unsure? Please email languagesforall-english@ed.ac.uk and one of our tutors will contact you within 5 days to help you choose the correct level.
Further descriptions of the CEFR framework and competencies at each level can be found on our Language Levels pages.

Free General English Courses for Displaced People

The Centre for Open Learning offers displaced persons the opportunity to take General English courses for free. These free places are available only for displaced people in Scotland, i.e. people from an area of instability or a zone of conflict who have refugee status, or indefinite leave to remain, are asylum seekers, or under humanitarian protection. This includes people from Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan and Hong Kong. If you do not meet this criterion, please do not apply.

We offer three courses at Beginners and Elementary level in the mornings. These are exclusively for displaced persons.

We also offer two courses at Intermediate and Upper Intermediate level in the evenings. These are courses for the wider public (full class details below) but have places reserved for displaced persons. Please note that registration for our Term 1 courses has now closed as all the courses are full.

More information and application >