English-medium universities around the world face real challenges in ensuring that incoming
students have the language and literacy skills they need to cope with the demands of their
degree programmes. One response has been a variety of institutional initiatives to assess
students after admission in order to identify those with significant needs and advise them on
how to enhance their academic language ability. This volume brings together papers from
Australia Canada Hong Kong New Zealand Oman South Africa and the United States written by
language assessment specialists who discuss issues in the design and implementation of these
post-admission assessments in their own institutions. A major theme running through the book is
the need to evaluate the validity of such assessments not just on their technical quality but
on their impact in terms of giving students access to effective means of developing their
language skills and ultimately enhancing their academic achievement.
