Overhaul of English language exams recognised for UK visas favours providers with international availability and tighter security measures.
Cream of the crop stay at home ... students in China, like these ones enrolling at an elite Beijing college, could eschew foreign study. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images
UK immigration authorities have drastically cut the number of language assessment providers they deem suitable to offer tests to demonstrate the English skills of visa applicants.
Last month the UK Border Agency, which controls visa processing, unveiled its revised list of English language tests that will be accepted as part of visa applications to come to the UK to live, work and study.
The new list will come into effect by July for applicants for work visas under the "highly skilled" Tier 1 or "general worker" Tier 2 categories and spouses or civil partners who are applying to join a partner in the UK. The list already applies to students who require visas under the Tier 4 category.
More than 12 providers included since language testing was introduced four years ago as part of the points based visa system have been dropped, with just six remaining. The deleted providers include the Academy of Oriental Cuisine, in Leeds, and the College of Excellence, north-west London.
All categories of visa applicants will use the new list, which indicates the scores required in each of 26 tests that can be used to demonstrate the range of language proficiency levels required under different visa categories.
The UKBA uses language levels defined by the Common European Framework of Reference scales. Spouses or civil partners applying to join partners in the UK will need to demonstrate they have achieved the beginner level A1 in speaking and listening, while students aiming for degree-level study will need to attain an intermediate B2 score.
The UKBA's criteria for selecting test providers for the new list included a requirement that the tests were available in a minimum of 40 countries and they were taken by no fewer than 2,400 candidates per year.
UKBA also asked for evidence of test validity, frequently updated test items and anti-fraud and anti-cheating measures.
But according to a US-based education consultant, the number of international students qualified to apply for study visas to the UK and to other English language higher education destinations could be lower than previously estimated.
Daniel Guhr, of the Illuminate Consulting Group, has developed a forecasting model that he says provides a more detailed prediction of international student movement.
The model assesses 128 variables, including English language test scores and measures of aptitude.
"You start to realise that the pool of students who are academically and linguistically qualified to study at an advanced level of English is actually a lot smaller than most people think," Dr Guhr told The Australian newspaper.
"It's becoming painfully clear that we have a substantial issue with English language capabilities among international students."
Guhr said that more students were using a "pidgin academic English" and that questions about the level of fraud in English language tests, and the academic significance of genuinely good scores, were complicating attempts to forecast student flows.
"If you say there are close to 500,000 students leaving China to study abroad, my question is, how many are truly academically talented," he said.
His team estimate that just over 600,000 Chinese 18-year-olds would have the aptitude and English skills for degree-level study in countries such as Canada, Australia and the UK. While 170,000 were already enrolled abroad, the remainder would be unavailable to recruiters for a range of reasons.
Source: The Guardian
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