Michael Goodine's Blog

The HOELT Tender has been published.  And I mean the actual tender, not another “request for information.” Here’s a link. the key takeaway is that the Home Office seeks “a fully remote language testing service.”  Says the tender: “HOELT will move to a digital-by-default approach, while upholding the rigorous standards necessary to support our immigration […]

The cost of taking the IELTS in China will drop by 180 RMB in a few weeks.   That’s about $25 USD.  After the drop it will cost 1990 RMB to take the test (about $280 USD).  It also seems that the UKVI version will have the same price as the standard version (a drop […]

I read some pretty random things things month! First up, I read “Our Hotel in Bali” by Louise G Koke.  This slim volume relates the author’s experience running (along with her husband) the very first hotel on Kuta Beach in Bali.  This hard-to-find book had been on my “must read” list for a couple of […]

I’ve attached here a Google Trends chart showing search interest in Canada over the past four years for the terms “IELTS” and “CELPIP.”  I share this because it demonstrates how CELPIP seems to be steadily closing the interest gap. (The chart begins in November 2021 as including the giant one-day spike from earlier that year […]

Here’s my latest Substack. It was published just a few hours before the IELTS situation emerged, so it doesn’t cover that at all. But there are some other interesting stories.

I read this article about a pilot program in Taiwan that will allow America-bound students to bypass traditional English proficiency testing if they complete a certain amount of coursework in English beforehand (at certain universities).  The program was developed by the Taiwanese Ministry of Education in collaboration with Fulbright Taiwan, and has already partnered with […]

The new Open Doors data came out earlier this week. There is a nice summary in the Pie News by Polly Nash. The number of international students in the country increased by 5% for the year. I suppose there is room for additional growth; as Nash notes: “Even with their continued growth, international students made […]

I’ve been uploading videos about the new TOEFL test.  Here’s one about the listening section. Meanwhile, I’ve created a landing page for the section here on the website. To quote that page: The TOEFL listening section will totally change on January 21, 2026.   Starting on that date, the listening section will be divided into two […]

Sometime last month, the Board of Trustees of the Educational Testing Service was expanded from 14 to 16 members.  New to the board are a couple of individuals with backgrounds in private equity – Philip Alphonse of Vitria Group and Victor Hu of Lumos Capital Group. Also joining is entrepreneur Pramath Raj Sinha.  Departing is James […]

I was quoted in this PIE News article  by Kimberley Martin about the ongoing IELTS hullabaloo.  Here’s my quotation, without the scaffolding of the article: “This story highlights how important it is for test makers to identify problems as quickly as possible so that test takers have sufficient time to protect their interests.  In this […]