Late last month, AEAS Testing resumed in Beijing and Shanghai – the last two cities to be released from the most recent lockdowns in China. Demand for overseas study among Chinese families is growing once again, and is AEAS is pleased to continue offering our testing to support families, agents and schools with their applications and enrolment processes.
AEAS, the Australian Homestay Network (AHN) and ISA Student Advocates (ISA) are collaborating to deliver their specialised services to Australian schools and education agents to promote Australia as the destination of choice for the academic and personal success of younger international students.
During COVID-19, students have had to progress their education in the domain of the online classroom. Through necessity, online exam supervision technologies have enabled schools to continue offering online courses and off-campus assessments throughout lockdowns. Despite the convenience factor, a new study has shown that even the most sophisticated of proctoring technologies remain flawed and should be engaged with caution.
International border closures and heavily restricted travel have had a devastating impact upon ancillary service providers, which, unlike schools, rely solely on international student business for their survival. While AEAS has experienced a decline in test numbers since March 2020, we are pleased to have partnered with a significant number of new Australian schools, as well as expanding into the USA and New Zealand.
Not everyone can become an AEAS Preparation Course teacher! There are quite a number of hurdles for course providers to navigate before they can nominate their teachers. This ensures that students are receiving the most authentic experience possible when undertaking an AEAS course. We also subject course providers to rigorous and regular quality assurance processes, to ensure they are delivering the curriculum as it is designed, so that students can achieve their best outcomes. Find out more about what it takes to deliver an AEAS Preparation Course.
AEAS has been one of the strongest advocates for the school sector throughout the pandemic. We coordinated a group of 40 independent schools in Victoria to develop a detailed plan for student travel and quarantine, which was submitted to the Victorian and Australian governments for consideration. We have also led efforts to connect schools, agents and other key stakeholders during 2020 and into 2021, by holding online events, agent training webinars and state meetings over the course of the past 12 months.
On Friday 21 May, AEAS held its first face to face event since the pandemic begin. Hosted by St Leonard's College in Melbourne, over 60 representatives from some of Victoria's best private schools, the State Government, and business gathered at our International Education Seminar & Networking Opportunity to reconnect with colleagues and make new connections.
AEAS is excited and proud to announce a partnership with Wheaton Academy in West Chicago. Wheaton Academy is the first school in the United States to use AEAS Testing as part of their application and enrolment process. International students wishing to apply to Wheaton will now be able to use the AEAS Report to support their application, and demonstrate their English language, mathematic and general abilities.
On Wednesday 24 March, AEAS held the first webinar in a brand new series of Australian School Professional Development seminars. The seminar series will offer school staff opportunities to hear from expert practitioners on a range of professional development topics to support the recovery of the international school sector in Australia post COVID-19.
32 hours, 45 schools, 25 agents, 300 families and over 1000+ individual meetings - these are just some of the headline statistics from another set of successful AEAS Australian Schools Online Events. Despite Australia’s borders having now been closed for over 12 months, we were very pleased to see families and agents engaging so enthusiastically with our participating schools.
