It has now been about one year since IDP Education Ltd stopped administering IELTS tests in China. As regular readers know, back in November of 2024, IDP started running IELTS tests in China for the first time. I think I was quoted somewhere as calling this a “game changer.” But at the end of December, due to regulatory issues, those tests were halted. In February, CEO Tennealle O’Shannessy expressed hope that the issues could be dealt with in “the next couple of months.”
And that’s the whole story so far.
This is an interesting case. For many many many years, the British Council paid IDP a sort of royalty in exchange for a promise to stay out of IELTS testing in the Chinese market. According to reports, that agreement was terminated with IDP’s entry into China. So now, seemingly, IDP has no royalty and no test fees. Were I an IDP shareholder I might say “hey.”
I’m sure IDP will get back to testing in China eventually. Indeed, I thought the British Council’s recent decision to reduce the price of the IELTS in China was part of its preparations for IDP’s re-entry… but that doesn’t seem to have been the case.