IELTS Research Reports

Gaynor Lloyd-Jones, Charles Neame and Simon Medaneycompares favourably in terms of cost and time with 2-year Masters programmes on mainland Europeand elsewhere. As well as the opportunity to improve English language proficiency, the BritishCouncil website cites other advantages of UK higher education in the variety of courses available,the flexibility of study and the multicultural experience of UK postgraduate study where at manyuniversities ‘more than 30% students may be international’ (British Council, 2008).However, success in recruiting greater numbers of non-native English speaking (NNES) studentsinto higher education may pose a threat to UK degree standards. This aspect of internationalisationhas recently been publicly highlighted in a debate involving the Parliamentary Select Committee onInnovation, Universities, Science and Skills, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and the BBC. Inan inaugural lecture at the University of Buckingham, Professor Alderman claimed that standards ofEnglish literacy were low in UK universities and particularly so for international students whose feescontributed essential revenue. A number of ensuing BBC online articles quoting unnamed academicsappeared to support Professor Alderman’s view (Coghlan, 2008). However, the QAA, in respondingto invitations from the Select Committee, pointed out the difficulties of pursuing and evaluating suchclaims because open disclosure is protected by confidentiality, consent and legal issues. The QAAadded that they were undertaking research into the recruitment and English language abilities ofinternational students (Select Committee, 2008).Similar debates have arisen in other countries, notably in Australia in the 1990s where there was acomparable influx of NNES students into higher education. Coley (1999) cites contributions from themedia and the literature to justify a survey of the English proficiency entry requirements of AustralianHEIs. She found a wide variety of sources of evidence in use in Australia at the time and littlestandardisation between institutions. Claims of apparent discrepancy between selection processes andentry requirements, on the one hand, and reported language proficiency, on the other, call into questionthe procedures surrounding the selection of NNES students and the forms of evidence upon whichselection decisions are based.1.2 UK university entry requirements for NNES applicants1.2.1 IELTS testAs part of their admission criteria, UK universities typically require NNES applicants to produceevidence of language skills in the form of formal English test scores. The International EnglishLanguage Testing System (IELTS) is the test most frequently cited on university websites and,although alternative tests are accepted, the IELTS is the benchmark against which other test scoresare compared. The British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and the University of Cambridge ESOLExaminations jointly manage IELTS. IELTS has a worldwide reputation and several years experienceof providing a reliable measure of English language ability. It operates through a network of 500locations in 120 countries around the world and around 6000 organisations have used its services.In the academic form of IELTS designed for university entry, scores are reported in whole and halfnumbers which carry qualitative descriptions of the associated language abilities at each level (seeTable 1) (IELTS, 2007). IELTS seeks to grade performance, in preference to establishing a particularpass score. Consequently, IELTS urges institutional users to interpret test scores in the light of coursedemands, their experience of teaching overseas students and a consideration of sub-test scores (IELTS,2007). In view of this, IELTS therefore leaves to academic stakeholders the responsibility for settingtheir own entrance requirements in terms of test scores.134 www.ielts.org