SENATE 

To

...................................................... 

SENATE UNDERGRADUATE ADMISSIONS BOARD 

.

Action taken by the Senate Undergraduate Admissions 

Board at its meeting of February 11, 1982, gives 

rise to the following motion:- 

MOTION: 

"In the case of a student whose TOEFL score 

is declared invalid, or cancelled by the 

Educational Testing Service, that student 

will be required to withdraw or be withdrawn 

or be suspended from the University 

immediately. 

?

Provided other admission 

requirements have been fulfilled, the student 

would be readmitted only when he/she is able 

to provide a valid score sufficient to meet 

the requirements of the University." 

...NDERGRADUAT.       

.....• 

MCMI LLAN 

ADMISSIONS BOARD 

?

SECRETARY, S.U.A.B. 

.INVALID TOEF..CORES 

.

7TH

JANUARY, 1982 

BACKGROUND: 

The admission policy for applicants whose native 

language is not English includes a Test of English as 

a Foreign Language, with a score of 570. The TOEFL 

test is administered by the Educational Testing 

Service. The Educational Testing Service is a non- 

profit organization committed to the development and 

administration of testing programs. The major 

purpose of the TOEFL is to evaluate the English pro- 

ficiency of people whose native language is not 

English. In 1979-80, over 240,000 persons registered 

to take the test at more than 700 centres located in 

135 countries. 

PROBLEM: 

During the past 8-10 months, ten out of approximately 

350 scores of registered SFU students have been 

cancelled by the Educational Testing Service. 

Approximately 80 others are still under investigation. 

Questioned TOEFL scores are brought to the attention 

of the ETS Test Security Office in several ways. 

Enquiries may be made to ETS by an institution which 

cannot satisfactority reconcile an apparent inconsis- 

tency between a candidate's test scores with current 

academic performance. Other candidates, or test 

centre supervisors may report a belief that misconduct 

has occurred at a test administration. Some discrepan- 

cies are also noted internally by ETS staff. 

The cancellation of a TOEFL score invalidates a 

student's admission to the University, because the 

student no longer meets the admission requirements. 

This decision involves the external agency (ETS) and 

the student. Simon Fraser University accepts the scores 

and information provided and does not become involved 

in

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matters that are properly between ETS and the student. 

Problem cases involving TOEFL cancellations by ETS 

are not classified as intellectual dishonesty unless 

there is some other clear evidence of such; they are 

problems-of deficiency 

in

standards. As a result,. 

the newly adopted Statement on Intellectual Honesty 

and Academic Discipline does not address these cases. 

Therefore, it is necessary for the Senate Undergraduate 

Admissions Board to recommend to Senate a policy for 

dealing with Simon Fraser University students whose 

TOEFL scores are cancelled. 

RECOMMENDATION: 

The TOEFL score is required of almost all applicants 

whose native language is not English. Very few cases 

of exceptional circumstances exist. The majority of 

our students satisfy the admission requirements with 

legitimate scores and documentation. In an effort to 

deal with the foregoing problem and ensure the 

equitability and credibility of our admission standards, 

the Senate Undergraduate Admission Board recommends to 

Senate that:-- 

In the case of a student whose TOEFL score 

is declared invalid, or cancelled by the 

Educational Testing Service, that student 

will be suspended from the University imme- 

diately. Provided other admission require- 

ments have been fulfilled, the student 

would be readmitted only when 

.

he/she is 

able to provide a valid score sufficient to 

meet the requirements to the University. " 

If, in the process of the cancellation of a TOEFL score, 

it is clearly established by this University that 

intellectual dishonesty exists, then academic discipline 

will be considered under the "Statement on Intellectual 

Honesty." ? 

.

?

.

FURTHER INFORMATION: 

In the process of cancelling a TOEFL score, the 

Educational Testing Service first notifies the student 

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and explains the options available. Those options 

include a retest under special supervision, authori- 

zation by the student to cancel the score, or the 

opportunity to provide additional substantive 

information relevant to the cancelled score. If the 

student does not choose any of the above options, 

or does not respond to the notification within a 

given period of time, the cancelled score will be 

reported to designated institutions. No reference 

is made to the reason for the cancellation. 

ACM: bc 