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IELTS celebrates 20 years

In November, 2009 IELTS celebrated its 20th anniversary worldwide.
Friends and colleagues from embassies, institutions, organisations and the media, with representatives from European countries, gathered in London recently to join the IELTS partners to celebrate its anniversary.
Since IELTS’ start in 1989 over six million candidates have taken the test, and it is now one of the most trusted and recognised language tests in the world. More than 6,000 educational institutions, government agencies and professional organisations recognize IELTS scores as a secure, valid and reliable indicator of true to life ability to communicate in English.
In 2008, 1,200,000 tests were held in nearly 500 test centers in 126 countries. That’s one test every 30 seconds somewhere in the world. In China, the total number of candidates exceeded 260,000.
During the same time visa applications from Chinese students to study in the UK in the first six months of 2008 were 46% up over the same period in 2007 when about 23,000 Chinese students were granted visas to study in the UK in 2007, and the success rate for visa applications was 82 percent in China as a whole, and 90 percent in Beijing. There are 60,000 Chinese students in the UK at present, of whom 51,000 are studying at higher education institutions.
There are predictions that the education market in China this year will expand even faster than before despite worldwide financial difficulties.
Along with the UK, universities in the USA, Canada and New Zealand are also widely recognized by Chinese students and parents as among the best in the world with high quality education resources, internationally recognized qualifications, and simple application procedures for both study visas and post study work visas.
In the USA the IELTS Test is now recognised by more than 1400 institutions including 7 out of 8 Ivy League Schools.
The demand for IELTS tests in Australia has also increased dramatically in the past few years, resulting in thousands of extra places being made available throughout Australia and in the past two years, a number of new test centres have opened in capital cities where demand for IELTS is high.
IELTS is also required as proof of language abilities for immigration to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom and is recognized worldwide as a test of real-life communication skills to enable candidates ‘…to meet others on common ground, through a common language for a greater global good.’
Satish Peters was one test-taker who took his test and now works in Wealth Management Banking, Bank of America - have a look at his impression of IELTS here.

IELTS offers you the opportunity to take part in an international experience, to become a part of the wider world – let iPass help you.

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