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[Stuka]

High Ielts score beats ability in quest for academic results

Pre-sessional courses don’t boost academic results for weaker test performers, study finds.

Why do international students do worse than their native-speaker counterparts academically?

Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency have shown that they gain proportionately fewer first and upper second-class degrees than UK home students.

And now, a UK study has found that while the Ielts scores students obtain before they arrive at university are a good predictor of academic results, attending a pre-sessional course has no significant effect on the outcomes of students with lower Ielts scores on entry.

http://digital.elgazette.com/june-2018/research-news-high-ielts-score-beats-ability-in-quest-for-academic-results.html

[kev20]

The IELTS requirements for most British universities show a lack of integrity within the third level education system. Students coming with 7.0 simply won't be able to keep up at undergraduate level and many of them are actually arriving at graduate level. 8.0 should be the minimum if they were actually concerned about the quality of the students attending their institutions, with a minimum of 7.0 for pre-sessional courses. There is definitely a disparatity in the English proficieny of students who get 7.0 with the level a 7.0 should actually be.

I do think (even though they are designed to make money) pre-sessional courses have a huge benefit if taken seriously, but I fear they're mostly used to get a foot in the door, get a visa, and then students and universities will figure out a way to move those students into full courses.

[Stuka]

[HLJHLJ]

I agree with the result, but not the reason. I've found a lack of study skills to be a far bigger issue than language. I worked at UCL (admittedly some years ago now) and many of the home students would have struggled to get 7 on IELTS. I was running what were essentially remedial English classes for home students with straight A* at A-Level.

Overseas students with a (genuine) solid academic background and good study skills wiped the floor with them even if their language level was low. If they had good English but little else they had a fighting chance. If they had neither, they just drowned.

[scot47]

Native-speaker students can have very low levels of competence, and poor levels of General Knowledge. I thank Our Maker that i have retired and no longer have to deal with these insurmountable problems.

I return to My Circles. "Noli tangere circulos meos !"