Do gatekeeping English language tests affect enrolment and success of equity groups?

Do gatekeeping English-language tests affect enrolment and success of equity groups?

The University Accord seeks to grow the population of university students from equity backgrounds. Enabling education, and other pathway programs will play a vital role in fulfilling this objective. Enabling programs are founded on the concept of open access and the use of English language diagnostic tests as a gatekeeper for entry does not align with this concept.

Previously, the Tertiary Enabling Program (TEP) at Charles Darwin University (CDU) used an English language diagnostic test as a gatekeeper activity (2017 – 2022) to ensure all students entering TEP possessed a sufficient level of English language proficiency to enable success. All English language diagnostic testing was removed from the second semester 2022 onwards due to internal research finding only a weak correlation between student English language diagnostic scores and the likelihood of success in TEP units.

This research is exploratory with the aim of determining if changes in English language diagnostic testing requirements from 2017 to 2024 have affected enrolment into TEP by different equity groups and their success. Historical enrolment and grade data sourced from the student management system will be used to compare the proportional size of equity groups enrolled before and after the removal of the gatekeeping test, and also investigate their success rates. The results of this exploration will help inform whether the lack of an English language diagnostic gatekeeper results in equity students entering enabling programs needing additional support to achieve success.