Learning, Teaching and Leadership

The headline reads, “IELTS exam fraud scandal ‘shocks’ Indonesia“, as reported by Vietnam.vn. The article goes on to offer details about large-scale cheating on English-language proficiency testing, saying that, “Faced with the increasing incidence of fraud, many prestigious universities around the world have adjusted their admission policies, especially regarding IELTS requirements.”

Contract cheating and exam proxies (i.e., impersonators) are at the heart of the scandal, with customers each paying about 47,000,000 Vietnamese Dong (which seems to convert to about $1851 USD or $2650 CAD, according to one online currency exchange website).

The article reports that these cheating incidents have caused schools in Singapore, Australia, and the US to raise the minimum test score for entrance to certain programs. (I am puzzled as to why schools think that raising the minimum score for admissions will prevent cheating on standardized texts used as an entrance requirement? My guess is that it might just drive up the price of fraud…)

Two chapters from our edited book, Fake Degrees and Fraudulent Credentials in Higher Education (Eaton, Carmichael, and Pethrick, 2023) are worth mentioning, as the authors of both chapters raised the alarm about the issue of large-scale global cheating on English language proficiency exams.

Soroush Sabbaghan (University of Calgary) and Ismaeil Fazel (University of British Columbia) in their chapter, ‘None of the above: Integrity concerns of standardized English proficiency tests’, “shed light on the complexities and the apparent disconnect between equity, integrity, fairness, and justice in standardized language proficiency tests and the integrity issues that can arise as a result.”

Angela Clark (York University), in her chapter, “Examining the Problem of Fraudulent English Test Scores: What Can Canadian Higher Education Institutions Learn?”, argues that “relying on a single language proficiency test score to determine an individual’s readiness is problematic, and also problematic is the lack of related academic research and data to help guide admissions decision-making”. She looks at media reports from the UK, US, and Canada, noting that, “Media reports and a lack of data serve to promote distrust of the language testing process and the test scores that institutions receive.”

Cheating on English language proficiency exams is nothing new and nor is it isolated to any one country.

Both of these chapters are thoroughly researched and well written. If you’re interested in the topic of fraud in English language exams, I recommend checking them out. In the meantime, large-scale cheating on standardized tests and the related problem of admissions fraud should shock exactly no one.

References

Clark, A. (2023). Examining the problem of fraudulent English test scores: What can Canadian higher education institutions learn? In S. E. Eaton, J. J. Carmichael, & H. Pethrick (Eds.), Fake Degrees and Fraudulent Credentials in Higher Education (pp. 187-207). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21796-8_9 

IELTS exam fraud scandal “shocks” Indonesia. (2024, December 28). Vietnam.vn. https://www.vietnam.vn/en/be-boi-thi-ho-ielts-rung-dong-indonesia/

Sabbaghan, S., & Fazel, I. (2023). None of the above: Integrity concerns of standardized English proficiency tests. In S. E. Eaton, J. J. Carmichael, & H. Pethrick (Eds.), Fake Degrees and Fraudulent Credentials in Higher Education (pp. 169-185). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21796-8_8 

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• Why Universities and Colleges Need Clear Policies to Deal with Fake COVID-19 Vaccination Records and Test Results
• Degrees of Deceit: A Webinar

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Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a Professor and Research Chair in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.