The exam, which is delivered by Pearson English, first started in 2009 and stemmed from other work being undertaken by the company within the testing space.

“There’s been strong growth in all markets”

“We looked at the fact that we had Pearson VUE, the world’s largest computer-based testing provider,” said Dan Doyle, vice president of PTE Academic.

“We looked at the fact that we had really cutting-edge technologies associated with the use of AI in scoring. We saw that we had academic expertise in the area of assessment design that was really second to none.”

At the time, the proficiency exam was the only of its type to use artificial intelligence, and Doyle told The PIE News that PTE Academic’s growth was due to an increased acceptance of its role in society.

“There is a willingness to accept AI in everyday life, an increasing focus on security and fraud from governments and universities, and just ongoing increase in international mobility,” he said.

Since launching a decade ago, PTE Academic has now become recognised by both the Australian and New Zealand government for migration purposes, while all Australian, Irish and New Zealand universities and almost all UK universities accept it for entrance into a course.

“There’s been strong growth in all markets that Pearson’s delivering PTE Academic in,” said Pearson’s head of PTE Academic Asia Pacific, Sasha Hampson.

“Australia has certainly taken on the position of market leader in recent years, and we’re now seeing the same occur in New Zealand and increasingly in Asia and a lot of the source markets that Australian institutions recruit international students from.”

Hampson added while recognition was still growing in established study destinations, many emerging markets were also seeing increased usage of the test.

The past two years have seen substantial growth for PTE Academic, after opening many additional testing centre in 2019, and in 2018.

• Photos from PTE Academic’s birthday celebrations during AIEC are available in our gallery