An Ontario college that requested hundreds of international students applying from India be re-evaluated in English language proficiency says more than one-third of those retested require additional support.Niagara College is now working “quite aggressively” with those students and reviewing whether admission criteria should be changed for each of its programs, says Steve Hudson, vice-president of academic and learner services.“We will use these results to continue to review our English language admission criteria and to enhance the language supports for students,” said Hudson. “Our focus has been on trying to ensure our students can be successful and working with them, particularly, once they’ve arrived here with a very high commitment, knowing both the financial and emotional costs it takes to get the students here.”Last fall, a school investigation revealed a high number of first-year international students who started in September were failing because their English skills weren’t at the required level. Most of them were from India, where they had successfully completed the IELTS test (the International English Language Testing System), which is accepted by most Canadian academic institutions and is one of two major English language tests used by Canada’s immigration department.The college, which has campuses in Niagara-on-the-Lake and Welland, was concerned about the inconsistencies in language proficiency. So, in late November it requested that 428 students from India, who had applied to start school in January, be retested. Those students had undergone IELTS testing around the same time as many who had started in the fall and at the same testing site. Essentially, the school wanted to avoid another scenario, with students coming to Canada and being ill-prepared for school.The IELTS test — owned by IDP Education, the British Council and Cambridge Assessment English — is a three-hour exam that ...
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