As of April 6, Trinity College London and IELTS will be the only two approved providers of Secure English Language Testing used to support UK visa applications, as part of a raft of changes to visa laws due to be laid before parliament on February 26.
There are currently four designated SELT providers, of which only Trinity and IELTS, which is jointly owned by the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and Cambridge Assessment, may be used to prove English language proficiency in a UK immigration application once the changes come into force.
“The Home Office have done an extensive piece of work – there was a very extensive due diligence aspect to it”
The changed regulations, which follow a tender process, began in Autumn last year and mean that the City & Guilds IESOL, ESOL and ISESOL qualifications and Pearson Test of English Academic will no longer be accepted as SELTs.
They also exclude all Cambridge Assessment exams other than the IELTS from the list.
However, all currently approved exams taken on or before April 5 will be accepted until November 2015 to ensure a smooth transition.
The change stems from a Home Office review that began when systematic exam fraud was uncovered on some ETS tests.
As a result, the Home Office opted not to renew its licence agreement with ETS to provide Secure English Language Testing in April last year, following allegations of systematic exam fraud after a BBC exposé revealed cheating by candidates on a TOEIC exam.
The approved IELTS exams will include a new IELTS Life Skills exam to be launched in April, targeting people who need to prove their speaking and listening skills at level A1 or B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference.
Trinity’s Chief Executive, Sarah Kemp, said the decision to use Trinity as a SELT provider is a “real endorsement” of its approach to the exam and attention to content.
“The Home Office have done an extensive piece of work, and not just the bid process – there was a very extensive due diligence aspect to it as well,” she told The PIE News. “They really were thorough.”
“We will work closely with any affected test centres, agents or partners to ensure minimal disruption to their business”
“The Home Office has gone through a huge level of detail not only concerning what the tests themselves contain but how the tests are delivered, the kind of security arrangements that are in place,” she explained.
Outsourcing was another issue considered by the Home Office in its selection process, requesting that all test centres be brought under the direct control of test providers, which led Trinity to acquire English Exam Centres, a nationwide chain of testing centres which it has worked closely with in the past.
According to Pearson’s website, PTE Academic will continue to operate “as normal” in the UK.
“We will work closely with any affected test centres, agents or partners to ensure minimal disruption to their business,” it said.
The Home Office has confirmed information provided by the exam providers is correct, but told The PIE News that it would not be putting out any further details before the legislation is presented to parliament.
Full details of approved SELT tests from April 6 2015 are available here.
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