Admission to a research program requires applicants to meet formal English proficiency criteria as well as academic criteria. This applies to both local and international students whose qualifications were not obtained from English speaking countries. For English speaking countries, we refer to the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, the English-speaking states of Canada, and South Africa. If students’ qualifications are not from these English speaking countries, they will have to show proof of English either through an IELTS or a TOEFL test.

The University’s English requirements are:

• TOEFL (computer-based): Overall of 237 with no less than 19 in each section and TWE of 5.0; OR
• TOEFL (paper-based): Overall of 580 with 53 in Section 1, 51 in Section 2, 52 in Section 3 and TWE of 5.0; OR
• iBT (internet-based TOEFL): Overall score of 92 with 23 in Speaking, 18 in Listening, 22 in Writing and 17 in Reading; OR
• IELTS (academic version): Overall of 6.5 with minimum of 6.0 in each band.

Some International students may be required to have a valid academic IELTS test result for their visa. This requirement should be checked with the Australian Embassy in the country of citizenship or residence. IELTS centres operate worldwide. Students wishing to arrange an IELTS tests are able to check the location of the closest centre on the IELTS website.

Scholarship applicants needing to meet English language proficiency requirements are normally expected to have an overall IELTS score of 7.0 (or an equivalent overall score of 250 in Computer-based TOEFL or 600 in Paper-based TOEFL, or iBT overall score of 100 with 25 in Writing and 23 in other sections). Some Macquarie discipline areas such as English, Law, Linguistics and Medicine also generally require higher levels of English proficiency.

Short and longer term English language programs are available through the Centre for Macquarie English (CME). The longer term courses are ten to twenty weeks in duration, subject to need, and are undertaken on campus. Full costing details are available at CME and the course requirements must be met before research degree enrolment.

The short course is a Master IELTS on-line program which is a web-based in-depth course for IELTS test preparation. The CME On-Line program has four modules: academic writing, academic reading, listening and speaking. Macquarie University offers assistance to complete this program or its individual components, to potential research candidates who otherwise satisfy entry requirements, but whose proof of English proficiency does not currently meet requirements.

Financial assistance is targeted to assist research applicants for whom a joint enrolment is under negotiation. The assistance is provided to research applicants from Universities with whom Macquarie has a Memorandum of Understanding and would like to extend collaborative research engagement. The University recognizes that there may be instances where such research applicants may have difficulty in completing IELTS while undertaking a national qualification exam, for example, PhD admission to a Chinese University for joint enrolment applicants. Macquarie funding is available to support these joint enrolment students. The process is as follows:

• Macquarie will pay the cost of this program plus the cost of subsequent test for candidates who have at least an IELTS test result of 5 (and 5 in writing – the most critical requirement) and who otherwise meet MQ admission and scholarship requirements.
• Candidates undertake the test at an offshore location as they will be without a student Visa. After completing the test and satisfying requirements, Macquarie will confirm the enrolment offer and any scholarship allocation. Travel arrangements can then be made subject to this confirmation. A Joint Enrolment agreement is to be either in place or under negotiation for such candidates.
• Macquarie pays the program cost direct to CME who will also arrange a local placement test.
• A Memorandum of Understanding should be in place for applicants from designated universities.
• All formal offers of sponsored on-line assistance are made through HDRO (hdrfuture@mq.edu.au).