On April 17 the British Home Office issued a news release announcing that approval of test centers authorized to conduct ETS (Educational Testing Service) has been terminated. British immigrants Bureau ETS has suspended its examination for new visa applicants to prove English proficiency.

In February, the BBC exposed the existence of fraud in ETS TOEIC tests. Subsequently, the British Home Office announced it would no longer accept grades awarded by ETS TOEIC test centers as a language qualification for visa purposes, and proposed a full investigation into ETS test scores.

Asked about the impact of the meassures on Chinese students, a spokesperson from EIC (Education International Cooperation Group) in China said that this is unclear at the present time as the details have not been released.

Some experts expect that the Home Office will publish further details in the future. In the long run the incident could indirectly affect the choices of Chinese students who submit applications to schools in both the UK and the U.S.

Responding to the UK measures, ETS in the U.S. announced on Apr. 17 that the fraud issues exposed by BBC were limited to TOEIC tests. No issues exist concerning the credibility of TOEFL exams. ETS also promised that it would adopt the most stringent security measures, including biological voice recognition technology, to ensure the worldwide credibility of ETS exams.

The article is edited and translated from英国叫停ETS考试 , source: People's Daily Overseas Edition, author:Zhao Xiaoxia.