UK English Language Requirement for Unmarried Partners

[goodenterprise]

I have Master's Degree from UK university. (Bachelor's from overseas) Will I still need to take English Language Test for the purposes of my extension of stay application?

The UKBA guidance on this says:

If you hold an academic qualification equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree in the UK which was taught in English, you will not be required to take the English Language test.


It however does not clarify whether Master's is academic qualification equivalent to a Bachelor's degree in the UK in the view of UK Border Agency.

Thanks for your help.

[kalgiphy]

Hope you had good luck in your pursuit.

common sense dictates that you should be OK. B'se the english language test is supposed to test your ability to communicate in English effectively. But, they might ask you to take the test, b'se of the way the immigrant's in the UK are being exploited. I don't want to sound or raise alarm in you. But, I'm going through such a situation myself at the moment.

My case:
This is not the first time I have come across people being exploited systematically. I have been interested in teaching for a while, and thought might give it a try. B'se I have the required qualifications.Have 2 Master's degrees. Oh no! But, I have done all my education in India. So? Indian Secondary school leaving certificate is comparable to UK taught GCSE, except English. One only needs a grade 'C' in English to qualify for a PGCE course. NARIC(The National Recognition Information Centre), after paying £40 says my Secondary english is not comparable to UK 's GCSE and the university says to go to "equivalemcytesting" people and write and pass a test which would make my english equal to GCSE.

But, the irony is this test is just similar to what we have done at Intermediate level and it is £180(£280 for study material and test). I just don't understand why I have to spend my valuable money for this test when I already have required skills. Well one could say having skills is different to having a piece of paper that tells that I have skills. I agree! But the point is when I spoke to NARIC for a clarification why they think Indian qualifications are not comparable, all that they say is what GCSE includes in english, but never gave me even a bit of sign that they know what Indian tests/academic syllabus includes. I could ask the same question in various forms they don't even try to answer my query all that they say is the same answer (100 times) that my english at whatever level it might have been, is just not suitable to a mere GCSE. I don't understand why? I agree it's not at secondary school leaving level, but surely somewhere down the line either at GCE or Degree level it must have equated GCSE English.It looks to me the NARIC doesn't even know what it's comparing the GCSE qualifications before accepting money and issuing a piece of letter.

It simply looks against my ethics that I don't want to be exploited by people.

I don't understand why such exploitative companies like, equivalency testing, are still going on especially with an endorsement from UNIVERSITIES? WHY this systematized exploitation is going on?Is there nothing the Govt can do? or even any independent bodies can do? I just don't know where to complain?


PS: the equivalency testing's English exam is just to test reading, writing and comprehension skills, which it tests in 3 sections. 2 on some prose and one in a piece of poetry.

PS2: and I have come across the rudest woman in the whole world when I spoke to NARIC. I don't know why she speaks so intimidatingly on phone, may be just proud that she doesn't need to spend her money to get her qualifications tested(if any). She speaks with so much ingnorance in her voice and speaks down to us as well.

[geriatrix]

We will not accept Master's degrees and PhDs as evidence,

[goodenterprise]

''Master’s degrees and PhDs will not be accepted as evidence. This is because UK NARIC is only able to assess whether a Bachelor’s degree (and not a Master’s degree or PhD) was taught in English.''

The above has been taken out from Page 6 of the Guidance Notes FLR(M) but it does seem to apply to qualifications awarded outside of the UK paragraph in the guidance.

[geriatrix]

You are on a student visa, an extension for which has recently been refused. And also a Tier 2 migrant with husband and children in UK as dependants. And now applying for extension as spouse / partner using FLR(M)?

Or are you seeking answers on behalf of friends?

[goodenterprise]

Got clarification yesterday:

In the view of UKBA - Master's Degrees whether obtained in the UK or abroad are not acceptable proof that applicant has basic level of English, hence English language test is required.

[kalgiphy]

How absurd is this. This means they(or shall I say we) don't trust their own education system. How can a student study, obtain and pass a master's degree in the UK itself without even having basic English? It seems they don't understand that if a person has higher level english the person also is proficient in basic English. May be one day people have to take tests to see if they can read write English alphabets. Let's start....
A..
B..
C..
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z...

[goodenterprise]

Further the scheme itself lacks intellectual coherence given that those with academic qualifications equivalent to the standard of UKs Bachelor degree are exempt from the English language requirement whilst those with PhD and Masters qualifications are not.

[pennylessinindia]

Further the scheme itself lacks intellectual coherence given that those with academic qualifications equivalent to the standard of UKs Bachelor degree are exempt from the English language requirement whilst those with PhD and Masters qualifications are not.

Not really if you have a PhD likelihood you will have a BSc BA so that be ok very unlikely you will have PhD and not have the lower qualifications

[goodenterprise]

not really. The problem and the extra unnecessary burden becames obvious again when someone has Bachelor from overseas and come to UK to complete his/her PhD or Masters. (thousands of students in the UK are in this scenario atm) and they still have to take A1 language test to comply with HO non-sense requirement.