Canadian exam board Paragon Testing Enterprises will offer its Canadian Academic English Language Test in China thanks to an agreement with the National Education Examinations Authority of the Chinese Ministry of Education.
Chinese students intending to study in Canada will be able to access the computerised version of CAEL.
“This will benefit and contribute to the China-Canada education exchange”
The agreement was signed by Jiang Gang, president of NEEA, and Donald Wehrung, president and CEO of Paragon, in a ceremony at Paragon’s HQ in Vancouver in June.
The event was attended by representatives from the Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China in Vancouver, the British Columbia Ministry of Jobs, Trade, and Technology, the University of British Columbia and the Canada China Business Council.
NEEA’s president Gang commented that the availability of alternative English language assessment tools will benefit China-Canada education exchanges.
“We believe the possibility and availability of the CAEL CE Test in China will provide Chinese candidates aspiring to Canadian higher education an alternative English assessment,” he said.
“This, of course, will benefit and contribute to the China-Canada education exchange.”
The agreement has been a long time in the making. At the ceremony, Wehrung explained that the first exploratory discussions began in 2012, after which Paragon submitted an official request to NEEA to conduct the CAEL CE Test in China in November 2016.
Subsequently, an MoU was signed with NEEA in December 2017, which then led to the services agreement signed in June.
“I really hope more and more Chinese students that choose to study in Canada can have more options in terms of English language proficiency testing,” Kong Weiwei from the Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China in Vancouver said.
“The Consulate-General in Vancouver will continuously support the bilateral education exchanges in various forms and keep on facilitating students’ mobility between China and Canada.”
