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English tests for international students: Birmingham responds
Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham has fielded questions regarding his plan to enforce a higher standard of testing for prospective international students.
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Seriously, this is not just an international student issue. All students should be tested
I think it is a correct approach. There are many students in reputed universities they don’t even understand basic English. A few weeks ago, I went to a University and asked an international looking student sitting in the canteen to point me a place drink some water, he said, – “no speak English”.
It looks like many universities are greedy for money the international students bring and some are getting admitted without any tests or based on some fraudulent test results.
We need English language test before students come to Australia, then repeated when they arrive (with say 10% margin of error allowed). So many students arrive with barely a word of English language capacity indicating someone else has sat their IELTs for them.
As per Keith, will students from overseas with acceptable English as measured by the IELTS test have to do this new test as well before commencement of their degree course?