MINIMUM ACADEMIC REQUIREMENTS
The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies establishes the minimum admission requirements common to all applicants, usually a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC). The graduate program that you are applying to may have additional requirements. Please review the specific requirements for applicants with credentials from institutions in:
Each program may set higher academic minimum requirements. Please review the program website carefully to understand the program requirements. Meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission as it is a competitive process.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEST
Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application. Tests must have been taken within the last 24 months at the time of submission of your application.
Minimum requirements for the two most common English language proficiency tests to apply to this program are listed below:
TOEFL: Overall score requirement: 92
IELTS: Overall score requirement: 7.0
-
An approved Bachelor’s degree and, for K-12 teachers, one year of teacher education;* OR
-
a 5-year Bachelor’s degree in Education; OR
-
a 4-year Bachelor’s degree in Education or other appropriate area provided the applicant has completed all the necessary prerequisites listed below.
-
Holders of 3-year Canadian degrees require a fourth or honours year.
-
Note: Students applying for MA in TESL are not required to have one year of teacher education, although two years of formal teaching experience is required.
- Students applying for MA in TESL normally have earned a degree in English, English language education, linguistics, or related areas, or have had coursework in these areas. Two years of formal teaching experience is preferred.
- At least two years of successful teaching experience or equivalent.
Applicants who received a degree from a North American university are not required to submit their English test scores. Similarly, applicants who completed their degree outside North America from an institution in which English was the primary language of instruction of the entire university (not just a program) are not required to provide English test scores as part of their application. Please note that we can only accept your English test scores if the test has been taken within the last 24 months at the time of submission of the application. An official test score report ordered from the testing agency has to be sent to UBC. Acceptable English language proficiency tests for applicants to UBC Grad School are: - TOEFL – Test of English as a Foreign Language, minimum score 580 (paper-based) or 237 (computer based), or new minimum TOEFL score of 92 (with a minimum of 22 for each component). and - TWE – Test of Written English. For those who take either the paper-based or computer-based TOEFL should also take TWE (Test of Written English) and have a minimum score of 5. or - MELAB – Michigan English Language Assessment Battery. Minimum overall score 85. or - IELTS – International English Language Testing System – Academic. Minimum overall band score 7, with no component less than 6.5.
