For First Time, International University Admissions Tests Coming to Cuba

For First Time, International University Admissions Tests Coming to Cuba
U.S. universities show appetite for recruiting students in the newly
opened communist nation
By LINDSAY GELLMAN
June 17, 2015 4:19 p.m. ET

Two popular university-entrance exams will soon be offered in Cuba for
the first time, a development that signals U.S. educational
institutions' appetite for recruiting prospective students in the newly
opened communist nation.

Four Cuban students will sit on June 27 in Havana for the Test of
English as a Foreign Language, a standardized exam required for
admission for nonnative speakers at many universities in the U.S., U.K.,
Australia and other countries, according to the nonprofit Educational
Testing Service, which administers the test.

The Educational Testing Service also said it plans to offer the GRE
revised general test, which is a graduate-school entrance exam that
measures verbal and quantitative reasoning as well as analytical
writing, in Cuba as early as October.

But the island nation's still-developing financial and technological
infrastructures present considerable logistical hurdles, the testing
service said.

The planned Cuba test dates come in large part as a response to demand
from U.S. universities seeking to recruit Cuban students as relations
between the countries normalize, said Jose Santiago, GRE business
director at Educational Testing Service. There has been "a lot of
interest both on the U.S. side and the Cuba side" in making the tests
available to Cuban students, he said.

The University of Washington's School of Law is among the institutions
eager to recruit Cuban candidates. The school actively seeks students
from transitioning economies around the globe, such as Afghanistan and
Myanmar, for its Sustainable International Development program, for
which students earn a master of laws degree, said Anita Ramasastry, a
professor of law and the program's director.

"It's not a far stretch to think that Cuba is another important country
in this larger dialogue," she said. The university requires graduate
applicants not educated in English to meet an English-language
proficiency requirement, she said.

Yet there are still kinks to be worked out. For one, registrants for the
GRE and the English language test typically sign up via credit card,
which few Cubans have, Mr. Santiago said.

For that reason, he said, the Educational Testing Service expects that
students' family members who are outside Cuba or at universities
overseas will have to complete registration on their behalf.

All four Cuban students taking the coming English test in Havana were
registered from outside the country, the testing service said.

Schools can also provide vouchers to test takers to cover fees, allowing
them to bypass online registration, he said.

Also difficult is securing testing facilities with sound computing
capability, said Mr. Santiago. The test center for next Saturday's
English exam has six electronic workstations, two of which will remain
open in case a student's equipment malfunctions and he or she must move
to another station, according to the testing service.

The organization is "erring on the side of caution," a spokesman said.

Mr. Santiago said he's currently working with two Cuban universities to
certify their computer labs as official test centers.

There are currently no planned dates to give the English test in Cuba
beyond this month's administration of the exam. It is too soon to
evaluate demand from Cuban test takers, Mr. Santiago said.

"This is still very new; it's in its infancy," he said. "There are still
a lot of issues that need to be resolved."

Write to Lindsay Gellman at Lindsay.Gellman@wsj.com

Source: For First Time, International University Admissions Tests Coming
to Cuba - WSJ -
http://www.wsj.com/articles/for-first-time-university-admissions-tests-coming-to-cuba-1434572352