Study in America with greater ease

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The Pilgrim, April 27, 2022

You won’t believe it, but when I was coming to the United States for my graduate school last year, the major encumbrance I faced was not the substantial cost of the visa or the air ticket. It was English.

For someone coming from Zambia, where English reigns supreme as the country’s official language, this was clearly ridiculous. Even more ridiculous that some American universities want it to be that way.

I’ve noticed that students of African origin are sometimes subjected to restrictive admission policies in the USA, but the most egregious one I’ve heard of and personally encountered is the mandatory requirement for the prospective student to pass an English proficiency test.

In my case, I was expected to pay $200, more or less, for a test like TOEFL, which uses a scoring system to determine your competence levels in reading, understanding, speaking and writing English.

Of course, the requirement didn’t compute for me. Both its price and rationale were a sore point.  

For capable African students who would readily pass such proficiency tests, the cost becomes the biggest obstacle. Given the type of financial sacrifice that people make just to go the United States, an expense worth $200 becomes unnecessary and inconsiderate.

My own university, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), parried all my relentless counterarguments. Not even an attestation letter from my alma mater, University of Zambia, compellingly written, signed and stamped on headed paper, could buffer my lack of a proficiency certificate.

I was told that no matter how well I understood the nuances of the English language, American or British, I had to be tested in order to study in America!

It was also ironical that they couldn’t believe a journalist. Not even my career as a writer could convince my university’s admissions team that I had what it took to succeed in America, besides my competitive academic record through the years.

Besides the cost of the proficiency test, what’s worrying and oppressive is the very assumption that a graduate student like myself, who is largely admitted based on my GPA and one who hails from an English-speaking country, can be vetted through a language proficiency test.

In the absence of serious activism, many of such policies have persisted in American universities and they remain the single most important hindrance to students who wish to apply for education in the land of the free, especially at graduate level.

As you can tell, for outstanding African students, if admitted solely for their high GPAs, an English proficiency test isn’t a predictor of success for them.

A quantitative test might be reasonable, but not a language one for students who speak, write and interact in the English language throughout their lives.

Accordingly, when I eventually earned my admission at SIUE after a Zambian well-wisher paid for my English proficiency test, I promised myself that I would work tirelessly to help ease the admission process for many other African students.

My plan was simple. Enter student leadership from early on and develop an advocacy agenda to present to my university management that highlights admission concerns such as removing English proficiency tests from admission requirements for African students who come from English-speaking countries.

I would say this was a seemingly far-fetched dream last year when I began my tenure of office as President of the African Students Association at SIUE.

But I went ahead to present an advocacy agenda that drew attention to African student interest.

It wasn’t a coronation, neither was there a procession of any sort. We presented these concerns as intellectual arguments to the university management. In a quiet and sensible way.

I’m excited to announce that SIUE will soon pilot an admissions system which does not require African students to sit for English proficiency tests because university management equally feels that such a requirement is not a predictor of success. It is essentially a hidden encumbrance.

What this means is that students, either from Zambia or any other country in Africa that speaks English, will be able to study in America with greater ease.

It might be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for to be able to apply for school in America. Or is it?

*This column is published every Friday in Zambia's bestg-selling newspaper, the Zambia Daily Mail