On April 10, the UK government posted an updated tender for the forthcoming HOELT test. I haven’t seen any reporting on this, so it may be useful to share a few notes.
The tender now lists estimated contract dates of August 2026 to August 2031, with a possible extension to August 2034.
Interestingly, the total value of the tender has been reduced from £1,130,000,000 to £680,000,000. This may relate to recent suggestions that the HOELT will be used for work visas only (not student visas). That said, Beth Kennedy’s article from December of last year suggests that the HOELT was never intended for student visas.
The deadline for participation in this third round of engagement is May 1, 2025 and the estimated “publication date of tender notice” is August 1, 2025.
Update: I just noticed that under “Engagement process description” it is noted that one of the primary purposes of the third round is to “Confirm the level of interest in the delivery of the Service under a single Contract.” This suggests that the Home Office may be seeking a single supplier to both develop and deliver the test. As you may recall, the original plan was for those aspects to be handled by separate suppliers. Or separate contracts, anyway.
This sort of change could narrow the range of acceptable suppliers. Not everyone can do both of these things, of course.