A Collaborative Approach to Assuring Standards: Using the CEFR to Benchmark University Pathway Programs’ English Language Outcomes

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed growing interest in Higher Education (HE) achievement standards and the comparability of program learning outcomes. The HE sector has historically focused on assuring academic standards through two key approaches: standardized educational testing and external peer review of assessment. Both approaches are resource and time intensive. In particular, the English Language Teaching (ELT) sector, which provides international students with Direct Entry (DE) pathways to English medium university study, has been predominately focused on high stakes English language testing. Commercially available tests enable providers to demonstrate clear evidence of ELT DE program standards in terms of internationally recognised scores. English language tests, however, represent only one type of external reference point for assuring standards. This paper provides an overview of a sector-led, collaborative approach to external review of assessment across 20 Australian university operated DE English programs. Twenty-eight ELT units were benchmarked by sixty individual assessors using consensus moderation against the newly expanded Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), a validated language proficiency framework. This case study demonstrates that collaborative benchmarking using the updated CEFR can effectively ensure DE ELT program standards to the benefit of staff and students globally.