Strewth! Crikey, stone the crows, English hey? Never woulda thunk it!

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"Now they will also have to take a new official test of their language skills before they can start such university or vocational studies to ensure they have reached the required standard, said Education Minister Simon Birmingham."

Does that mean a high IELTS score locally at ACE for example is no longer sufficient?

taabarang wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:58 am "Now they will also have to take a new official test of their language skills before they can start such university or vocational studies to ensure they have reached the required standard, said Education Minister Simon Birmingham."

Does that mean a high IELTS score locally at ACE for example is no longer sufficient?

A high IELTS score from ACE will still be sufficient. Usually the Australian universities want an overall IELTS score of 6.5 with a minimum of 6.0 in each section for an undergraduate degree. This may be higher for post-graduate degrees. They also accept other tests like TOEFL with the equivalent scores. If the overseas students don't meet the standards, the universities will still admit them, but they have have to complete and pass English prep classes first.

These new requirement are probably aimed at vocational colleges. I think they can take overseas students at the moment without the same IELTS scores. A lot of these places are used by the overseas students so they can get visas. People come from the Punjab or somewhere, ostensibly to study something like hairdressing, but actually spend 60 hours a week driving their uncle's taxi.

The government won't want to do anything that reduces the number of overseas university students. They make too much money from them. If you walk around an Australian university campus now, you don't see too many white faces. Mostly Chinese.

My mate teaches English at a kosher Korean owned school on Sydney with lots of students from all over the world. Things have changed dramatically lately with empty class rooms and many fewer students.

That's no surprise really. Sydney would probably be one of the most expensive places in the world to go and study English.

The article is misleading. Since 2007, the Australian govt. has required a minimum IELTS proficiency or equivalent before issuing a student visa. Exceptions were made for students from Singapore, Hong Kong and some recognised international schools in Thailand. My school and ISPP both asked the Australian Embassy here to apply for exemption, as our students study 1st. Language Cambridge and IB English respectively and easily meet the language requirement. The embassy didn't co-operate.
It seems Aus. universities found a way round the requirement by conducting their own pre-study English courses, then automatically pass anyone who pays the money. They work the same scam with so-called Foundation courses. I have had students who failed every subject in GCSE and were then admitted to courses like Law at Australia's top universities.
The scamming was exposed 4 years ago by the "4 Corners" programme's exposure of their racquets. It seems the govt. is now standardising and taking control of the tests, to prevent further abuse.
Here, ACE lies to applicants by telling them they must do a full IELTS course to obtain the visa. They only need to sit for the exam and pass it.

Gilmore wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2017 1:18 pm The scamming was exposed 4 years ago by the "4 Corners" programme's exposure of their racquets.

I think that you meant to say 'rackets'.

same in UK, colleges with hundreds of students on the books that were only a small room and a couple of computers. They have started clamping down now. But as one door closes another opens.

charlie