"Global Studies students at Musashi University’s School of Liberal Arts and Sciences come predominantly but not exclusively from Japanese high schools and enter our EMI program with varying levels of English language competence and experience. All, however, need to get up to speed quickly to keep up with English-medium content classes offered from day one; many also share the goal of taking advanced courses during mainstream study abroad with one of our foreign partners, typically in their third year.

Against this background, we have them take the IELTS Progress Check test twice yearly, partly to measure progress and improve familiarity with the IELTS academic test format, and partly also as a diagnostic tool: the detailed feedback helps students and instructors identify areas of relative weakness and build study support plans tailored to individual needs. Since the test can be taken by students at home within a flexible but controlled time frame, it is a monitoring option that is easy to implement as well as reassuringly affordable.

The excellent team at IDP provide clear instruction materials and teaching aids to facilitate preparation, friendly and timely support in dealing with technical issues, and a remarkably painless process for collating and reporting results. We are pleased to see our students not only making substantial gains in their test scores but also, more importantly, developing their confidence in classroom interactions and achieving their academic goals.

This year a record-breaking number of Global Studies students were awarded scholarships for study abroad and we look forward to them continuing to break new ground on their ongoing academic and personal journeys." - Professor Paul Minford, Global Studies Program, Academic Director, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Musashi University, Japan