Dear all,

I am a Chinese from Hong Kong and I grew up in Singapore, where I stayed there for 14 years. I then moved to the UK for my further studies in 2008 and graduated from a Russell Group university in Wales back in 2011. As of now, I have had 3 years of work experience in database maintenance, export and vendor management in the retail sector (Fortune 500 company) as well as one year of general management experience in my family-owned business, all in Hong Kong.

I had applied the MBA courses of the top 2 universities in the West Midlands for 16 entry and had received a conditional offer from one of the universities. One of its conditions listed out to me is that I need to do an English Proficiency Test. I called them and they said that because I am holding the Hong Kong nationality and that my degree was not awarded within these 2 years, I am not exempted from an English Proficiency Test. I was bewildered and skeptical by the above explanation as English is my first language. I told them that my 2:1 UK degree from a Russell Group university is a lifelong credential to prove that I am capable of handling the rigour of the MBA course, not just of 2 years. They also cannot judge a person's language skill based on nationality. Now I am waiting for their reply.

May I also know what is the probability of my chance of getting into the top university in the West Midlands as well? I will be doing my GMAT end of this month.

Thanks for reading.

[Edited by yipkc on Nov 18, 2015]

Honestly, that sounds like a silly policy that exists only to reduce the number of applicants from overseas. However, it sounds like a real policy rather than an oversight (Birmingham, for example, has operated a similar policy). I guess the real issue here is that a degree shows that you can write English, but business schools are full of students of Chinese origin whose reading and writing skills seem much better than their speaking and listening, and perhaps that is why they want a test.

Strange enough, they did not even do a telephone interview with me. I wish they could have done it so that they would have known how native my English is, instead of being illogical and nonsensical.

[Edited by yipkc on Nov 19, 2015]

I don't think it's particularly strange that they don't do an interview. They want an easy way of making sure that people have a high, active level of English and admissions staff are not professional language testers. They can't have one rule for you and a different rule for others. As a result, they choose a rule that is just going to lose them talented applicants -- but they have no shortage of them I guess.

Fair enough. I am glad that they made an offer to me anyway. Their post-graduation work experience is comparatively higher than the rest of the business schools out there, requiring at least 5 years or more. I am actually still waiting for their reply. Talking about efficiency...