Providing transparency and credibility: the selection of international students for Australian universities. An examination of the relationship between scores in the International Student Admissions Test (ISAT), final year academic programs and an Australian university’s foundation program

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Throughout 2003–04 five cohorts of students in their final year of school studies in various Malaysian colleges and a group of students completing an Australian university foundation year in Malaysia sat the International Student Admissions Test (ISAT). The ISAT is a multiple‐choice test of general academic abilities developed for students whose first language is not English. Both sets of scores were examined to investigate the relationship between skills measured by the academic programs and the generic reasoning skills measured by the ISAT. The data were examined by looking at correlations and patterns of the ISAT scores, and the total academic program scores and individual subject scores. As well, multiple regression was used to examine if the ISAT could act as a predictor for academic program scores. Although the ISAT and measures of achievement in the academic programs are two completely different instruments, the study showed that: (i) the scores were positively and significantly correlated; (ii) patterns of co‐variation of the ISAT and academic program scores demonstrate a positive relationship; and (iii) there is evidence that achieving a high score in the academic programs requires high reasoning skills, as measured by the ISAT. The findings of this study indicate that the ISAT is a useful predictor of student ability for use in the university selection process for international applicants.