Internationalising Higher Education

This session examines the increasing importance of English language proficiency, and the benefits of various TOEFL resources for English speaking institutions. As English has become the preferred international language, English-language proficiency has become a critical skill and more and more students are seeking study-abroad opportunities in Englishspeaking universities. To recruit students who have the language skills necessary to succeed in this academic environment, universities need valid and reliable tools to measure the proficiency of their applicants. ETS's new Online Speech Sample Service provides the opportunity to listen to a 60-second portion of an applicant's scored speaking response to one of the TOEFL iBT integrated speaking tasks, simulating the challenges of university learning conditions. Universities in the UK can now verify TOEFL scores using the Online Score Verification service, making it possible to process applications more quickly. ETS will discuss these recent developments and encourage feedback on other services they can develop and/or provide to further facilitate effective student mobility