专家深度解析：英国移民局与托福考试风波

 

英国移民局取消与ETS的合作后，建议所有英国境内的担保人，包括大学、雇主以及其他需要审核英语成绩的机构都应当取消相应的担保资格，那么直接受到此政策影响的将为持有托福/托业语言成绩，已拿到英国大学offer即将赴英的学生和其他持有此类语言成绩即将赴英的各类人士。

 

为此，笔者也接连收到大批中国学生咨询，表明他们对此政策即将带给自己的影响的担忧。一批即将赴英的托福/托业考生，甚至自发在微博上成立了“托福赴英维权者联盟”，并公开联名致信ETS和UKVI，表达对此政策的抗议。信件内容如下：

 

A Joint Letter to UKVI

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

We are Chinese TOEFL test takers who have received offers from all kinds of universities in the UK. Recently, we are greatly worried and concerned about the event that the Home Office had decided not to extend SELT license with ETS, and TOEIC and TOEFL testing would no longer be offered for U.K. visa-granting purposes because of TOEIC testing fraud happened in the UK. If this policy treats all of innocent overseas TOEFL candidates equally without any discrimination, it may have a serious impact on our study abroad plan, disturb our life totally and even shatter our study dreams。

 

As we all know, British educational system with the history and development of several hundred years is famous for its high-quality education in the world. We regard UK as our first choice for its attractive British culture, diversified education processes, broad range of courses and incomputable world leading education institutions. However, now it seems that all of our eager expectation is becoming the pie in the sky. We feel disappointed and unacceptable for this policy because all of Chinese TOEFL test takers are disciplined without any fraud behaviors or illegal means and exert themselves for several months to obtain the high TOEFL scores. In China, the invigilation of TOEFL testing is very strict and the entire process is under the scrutiny of surveillance cam and several invigilators。

 

In addition, the previous fraud event occurred in the UK, so it is really unfair and unwise to refuse the innocent overseas TOEFL candidates. If UKVI no longer accepts TOEFL as a language test for visa, both the UK and overseas students will suffer from significant losses. Taking a postgraduate student as an example, the total expenditure in the UK will be 30,000-40,000 pounds per year, including tuition fees and life expenses. So far, we have confirmed that there are more than 2,000 Chinese students with the TOEFL to apply for the universities in the UK. Therefore, UK may lose 60-80 millions of pounds per year. There are also many students affected by the measure in other countries. Due to the time issues, they may not have enough time to take alternative test, and have to turn to the application of other countries. Therefore, UK will suffer from enormous economic losses around several ten million pounds or even more for this action. UK will even lose lots of human resources and economic losses. The losses mentioned above are just the short-term. It is predictable that losses in the future will be even more. The reason why we choose UK is that we all believe the UK has a good reputation in the long history. We all don’t want to see its reputation or image damaged by this affair。

 

Furthermore, in February, ETS and UKBA had claimed firmly that fraud event would not influence the TOEFL test takers overseas to utilize the TOEFL for U.K. visa-granting purposes on the websites. Thus, most of us have booked our accommodations and flight tickets, paid for the deposit and even the tuition fee for our language courses. But now you declare this policy suddenly. We deem it shows your sheer irresponsibility. Even, it is the graduation season in China now, so most of us have no time to prepare for IELTS or PTE. What’s worse, IELTS test is one of the most competitive tests in China, so it is difficult for us to get a test place in the short period。

 

We trust you may try to understand our situation and provide reasonable measures to help us! We look forward to your timely reply。

 

With kindest regards。

 

Nearly 200 victims of Chinese TOEFL candidates

 

22nd April, 2014

 

以上《致英国签证和移民局的联名信》要点如下：

 

1. 作为已拿到英国各大高校offer的中国托福考生，对此政策深感忧虑；

 

2. 中国的托福考试监管十分严格，而托业考试丑闻的发生地是在英国，不应为此牵连海外考生；

 

3. 若移民局不再承认托福考试成绩，英国和海外考生都将因此承受巨大损失；

 

4. ETS和UKVI已在2月替考丑闻被揭露后声称，丑闻将不会影响海外考生，因此不应临时取消对托福/托业考试的承认。