Ugandans exempted from English test at American University

Ugandans who wish to do graduate studies at the Pennsylvania State University, USA will no longer be required to sit an English proficiency Test.

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) has previously been a pre-requirement to join the university and one was expected to score above 80 per cent or 6.5 respectively.

According to Mathias Ssemanda, a Ugandan studying in the USA, the university has shared mail to stakeholders confirming that the English test has been called off indefinitely.

“I received an email from Pennsylvania State University informing me that Uganda 🇺🇬 was added on countries they exempt from TOEFL or IELTS,” Ssemanda said.

“I guess Ugandans that have studied here before have tremendously shown good command of English,” he added.

According to the University email, “You no longer need to submit TOEFL or IELTS scores to be considered for admission to Penn State.”

Many other universities continue to retain the English test requirement because Uganda despite having English as the official language, also has many indigenous languages that citizens use.

Dr Jacob Otile says he has found different fortunes while applying to North Carolina's urban research university.

“I have been having back-and-forth conversations with @unccharlotte and they seem reluctant to let go of TOEFL/IELTS just because apparently Uganda has so many languages and hence they had to add English Proficiency to my application even when it wasn’t there initially when I applied.”