ETS has acquired PSI. Check out the announcement on the ETS website. This is really great news for several reasons.
The most critical is that PSI operates the “Skills for English: SELT” test which is accepted by the Home Office of the UK for visas. This sort of acceptance is critically important for language testing firms nowadays. Getting the TOEFL back into the good graces of the UK Home Office is one of ETS’s top priorities these days (I think) and this will certainly help.
Also:
- PSI has live online proctoring capabilities. In the short term, ETS really needs to bring all proctoring in-house. This purchase may facilitate that. I don’t think ETS can keep paying an arm and a leg for oursourced proctoring services which I think are… not fantastic.
- PSI has asynchronous proctoring capabilities. In the medium term, ETS really needs to phase out live online proctoring. This purchase may facilitate that.
- PSI does a lot of tests across a variety of industries. This is what ETS used to do, and ought to do more of in the future.