Cheating!

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Source:pxhere.com CC0

A 2014 BBC Panorama documentary exposed extensive, organized cheating in the English language tests international students in the UK had to pass for course changes or visa renewals. Consequently, the Home Office revoked about 35,000 students' visas, leading to most being expelled from their courses, 2,500 being deported, and 7,200 leaving voluntarily due to arrest threats. Despite evidence of cheating with help from some test center workers, thousands of students have protested their innocence over the years, and it has emerged that many were wrongly accused. The Home Office faces accusations of hastily penalizing a large group of international students.

The Home Office provided international students with details of four approved English test providers. However, widespread cheating was exposed by Panorama in two centres run by a UK subsidiary of Educational Testing Service (ETS), a US-based company. Post-investigation, ETS found that 58% of about 58,000 test-takers between 2011 and 2014 had cheated on the Test of English for International Communication (Toeic), leading to visa cancellation. An additional 39% of the tests were questionable, resulting in these students being asked to retake the test. ETS confirmed that only 2200 students had not cheated during that period.



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