A plan to require all foreign students to pass a test proving their English language competency before enrolling in an Australian university has been rejected as too simplistic.
A report commissioned by the federal government's marketing agency, Australian Education International, says calls for students to sit a standard English test have found little support within the international education industry. It says the issues are too complex for a simplistic solution and English language test scores do not predict academic success.
This year, Monash University researchers proposed more stringent testing after they found that more than a third of foreign graduates in 2005 who applied for permanent residence did not have sufficient English normally required for employment as professionals.
The research raised questions about how students with limited English gained entry to Australian higher education courses in the first place and how they subsequently passed their examinations.
Up to 40 per cent of the 60,000 international students who graduate from Australian universities each year apply for permanent residency, yet at least 7,000 fail to demonstrate an adequate level of English language proficiency.
The findings, by a team headed by Monash University's Dr Bob Birrell, led the federal government to impose new rules on foreigners seeking to stay in Australia permanently.