Earlier in the year, the UK government introduced a new system to test the English of people applying for visas to enter the country - and at the time, a Minister claimed the Home Office’s remote language-testing plans offered ‘significant benefits’:
Mike Tapp says new system for assessing visa applicants’ language skills could deliver ‘strengthened identity management and security and much greater visibility and control over the service for the department’ The Home Office has insisted that its proposals to introduce remote language assessments for visa applicants seeking the right to live and work in the UK have the potential to offer “significant benefits” to the department.
Currently, the Home Office’s UK Visas and Immigration section allows a range of providers to offer Secure English Language Tests in the UK and international locations. But under a procurement exercise that closed to bidders earlier this week, the department is seeking a supplier for “fully remote” English-language testing
But the language-testing industry is not happy about this, with providers waring the government that "Online English tests for migrants risk criminal abuse":
At the moment, migrants who want to study or work in the UK need to show they can speak English to internationally recognised standards by taking tests at one of more than 1,300 test centres around the world. But in November last year, the Home Office launched a tender, external for "fully remote" English tests to run for five years from December 2026 at the earliest.
It said the new system would see "customers" - meaning migrants applying for visas - choose where to take their test, providing secure conditions were met. From January, those tests were made tougher, with migrants told they needed to demonstrate the equivalent of A-level English to be considered for a skilled work visa and other categories.
Two-thirds of the current, in-person English tests are overseen by a consortium called International English Language Testing System (IELTS). It is comprised of the British Council, the UK's national cultural and educational organisation; Cambridge University Press and Assessments; and IDP, a large Australian education company.
The letter said applicants could cheat in a variety of ways, including using impersonators, working with an accomplice via screen–sharing or earpieces, or getting help from AI chatbots. The letter added that the current system would not allow test providers to act without "sufficient security and consistency". "This is particularly important, given the politically charged nature of the debate around migration and the need for more, not less, control and certainty over who is allowed to come to the UK."
Last August, the Australian government banned remote or at-home tests to assess the language competency of migrants.
In the latest issue of the E L Gazette, Mark Rendell, CEO of International House Trust, says that IELTS was right to walk away – the Home Office is making a huge mistake:
The Home Office’s decision to continue its pursuit towards the introduction of a single Home Office English Language Test (HOELT) to be delivered remotely and unsupervised for high stakes immigration purposes is surprising and deeply unsettling.
Fraudsters and bad actors will already be hatching ways to defraud the country. Options for deception are varied including impersonation, screen sharing, hidden devices, earpieces, chatbots, AI assistance, camera blind spots, HDMI splitters, browser extensions and ‘disrupted’ internet connections to circumvent security defences. Would-be migrants will be allowed to sit these life-changing tests in unsupervised locations of their choosing, rather than under direct invigilation having passed robust digital and human security checks...
The largest current Secure English Language Test is IELTS, and it has just been announced that IELTS is withdrawing from the tender to deliver the HOELT test because its creators do not believe that such a test of national significance can be delivered in a secure and fair way using a fully remote format.There have been several cases recently where high stakes remote tests have been withdrawn from the market following concerns about widespread cheating including ACCA, the accountancy exam, and LSAT, the equivalent exam for the legal profession. Australian immigration authorities also recently announced that they had considered and rejected the adoption of remote language assessment...
Testing systems only have value if they are trusted and deliver accurate and fair results. It would be a great shame if the UK’s hard-earned reputation for world class standards was tarnished by the crash in public confidence and unwelcome press headlines that are likely to follow the introduction of fully remote assessment for high stakes purposes.
And indeed, there has already been a lot of negative press reaction, including: Migrants can cheat Labour’s online language tests (Telegraph); English lessons shouldn’t be an immigration test – why the UK’s new policy risks deepening exclusion - University of South Wales; Fury as migrants will no longer have to take English test in person in £816m deal | UK | News | Express.co.uk
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