The Home Office's decision to accept TOEFL scores submitted with student visa applications for exams taken prior to April 17 has helped minimise any disruption of ETS terminating its SELT licence, sources indicate. The company has now unveiled voice biometric testing as a new security layer.
The UK government has ended its licence agreement with ETS to provide Secure English Language Testing as required by UKVI. This means that TOEIC and TOEFL scores are no longer valid as proof of English level – ETS confirmed it made the decision after TOEIC fraud was uncovered in UK testing centres.
TOEFL and TOEIC exam testing in the UK has been temporarily suspended after a BBC Panorama investigation that was aired on Monday 10 Feb has revealed systemic cheating by candidates taking a TOEIC exam. Meanwhile QAA has confirmed it is opening investigations into the two colleges named in the programme and accredited by the organisation.
The iTEP (International Test of English Proficiency), a relatively new player in the EFL test market, is to deliver 15,000 exams this year with the Saudi Arabian government in a sign of its growing presence in the region.
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.
