PETITION TO: THE HON ALEX HAWKE MP- Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services And Multicultural Affairs

STATEMENT OF PETITION:

This petition is on behalf of the INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ORGANISATION OF AUSTRALIA to Increase validity of IELTS/PTE & 2 consecutive English tests should be accepted in AUSTRALIA. The Petition seeks the following 2 objectives:

1 Increase validity of English test’s for Australian Student VISAs

There is a pressing need to increase the validity of IELTS/PTE/TOEFL for 5 years for all Student VISAs

Due to the current short 2-year validity of IELTS/PTE/TOEFL or any other English test for student visa, thousands of international students are going through extremely hard times especially during this COVID-19 pandemic and the time it will take for students to overcome such challenges as the economy slowly recovers.

The challenges include mental health, general health, in addition to the extra financial burden that is placed on them by limiting the validity of IELTS/PTE/TOEFL test to only two years.

2. Two consecutive English tests should be accepted for Australian Immigration Purposes 

For the purposes of immigration, scores for the IELTS/PTE/TOEFL tests for 2 consecutive tests should be accepted in certain period of time. At present, many international students are being forced to sit the same tests possibly 10 - 15 times in order to achieve the required scores in one go. For example, if a student requires a score of 7 in each band, and participated in IELTS test on following dates and achieved the following scores respectively:

Date      Reading-Writing-Listening-Speaking
10 Jan         7           6.5            7               7
25 Jan       6.5           7              7               7
10 Feb        7             7             7              6.5

As shown in the above example, for international students to score proficiency in all the required bands in the one English test, such students are going through severe mental stress and financial hardship due to having to undergo the same exams repeatedly.

Accordingly, the rules should be amended such that if students score the required band for proficiency in one test and failed to achieve the same result in subsequent test(s), this does not mean that such students are not proficient in English.

It is submitted that the rules should be amended such that proficiency in a band should be taken as being achieved if it is achieved in any defined period in any 2 consecutive tests. It is suggested that such period should be 1 month, or any other defined period.

CONCLUSION:

We request the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs to extend validity of IELTS/PTE for a period of 5 years for Student VISA purposes and to accept that proficiency is achieved in the English exams for immigration purposes provided that such proficiency is achieved in any 2 consecutive tests in a month.

Thanks for considering our request. We highly appreciate it.