A new breed of digitally-delivered English exams don’t stop at testing verbs, they also want to democratise education and see themselves leading the way. But as the testing industry embraces technology, these changes may go as far as to challenge our idea of test itself. Claudia Civinini reports.

Pearson has opened two new English language test centres in Australia over the past two weeks, one in Adelaide and one in Melbourne.

Education giant Pearson has launched the Global Scale of English – a numeric measurement of English language proficiency. The company will begin introducing the GSE into its product lines worldwide over the next 18-24 months and aims to establish it as a universal benchmark for businesses, governments and academic institutions.

Industry giant Pearson has launched new exam test centres for its Pearson Test of English Academic centres (PTE Academic) in a number of key student source markets in collaboration with international schools and education agencies, in a clear move to work at the heart of the supply chain in international education.

Pearson has announced it will partner with JJL agency in China to promote its secure Pearson PTE Academic test. The company said JJL was the largest and most prestigious student recruitment agent in China, and the partnership will allow its 30,000 clients across 21 centres to have on-demand access to PTE Academic testing.

More than 1.7 million sat the IELTS test in 2011, making it the world’s most popular academic English language test according to its owners. The USA and East Asia were the fastest growing markets for the test, with a large rise in test-takers within the USA as well as India and China.

In a sign of growth in Iraq's nascent study abroad market, Pearson opened its first language testing centre in the country...