Does anyone know what’s up with IDP IELTS China? Students seeking to book an IELTS test in China are still seeing the “Registration system maintenance in progress” error that has been displayed for several weeks. And, as far as I can tell, test dates for 2025 have never been open for booking. That means, I guess, that no one is currently taking the test through IDP in China; their entry into the market appears to be paused for the time being.
Some have suggested that this could be due to regulatory hurdles. If that is the case, I imagine that a plan-B exists, and we’ll hear about it sometime in 2025. As has been reported by a few outlets, IDP recently canceled its lucrative agreement to collect royalties on administrations of the test done by the British Council. I’m certain they wouldn’t have given up that source of income without a firm plan to permanently enter the market.
With that said, it is worth noting that the launch of IDP IELTS in China has been somewhat peculiar. It happened without much fanfare. It was mentioned in the most recent shareholder’s call and I blogged about it at that time. The PIE News picked up the story a bit later, and that was about it. Most Chinese students only learned about the development after the Chinese blogosphere reported on the PIE’s report.