Customer Story
“It’s about giving our learners the modern exam experience they expect. They’ve been asking us for more flexibility and faster results, so we’ve developed an enhanced way to take Cambridge English Qualifications digitally.”
Fran Woodward, Global Managing Director, English, Cambridge University Press & Assessment
Cambridge University Press & Assessment is part of the University of Cambridge. They develop the world’s leading range of resources and assessments for learners and teachers of English. This includes the Cambridge English Qualifications, which are designed to assess English language proficiency, from basic to advanced levels. The Cambridge English exams started life in 1913, and the ongoing success has been driven by a passion for education, constant innovation, and a commitment to delivering high-quality exams. Today, candidates across the globe sit these exams on a daily basis. The qualifications are recognized internationally as one of the standardized methods of proving English competency for education and employment.
The English language education landscape is evolving, and Cambridge University Press & Assessment is enhancing the test experience to better reflect candidates’ everyday lives. Students worldwide are accustomed to digital learning and activities, making it essential to provide a scalable and flexible assessment platform for Cambridge English Qualifications. Ultimately, English language candidates and test centres around the world want more flexibility. This means more choice for when candidates can take a test, and faster results at the end of the process. The paper-based option is still available too, so candidates and centres can choose the format that they prefer.
Launched in March 2024, Cambridge English Qualifications Digital is available for candidates from A2 Key to C2 Proficiency. Cambridge successfully migrated from an existing digital platform to an updated digital test taker experience. They selected Inspera to support their digital assessments due to a number of factors:
– An intuitive user interface
– Streamlined operational processes
– Proven scalability on a platform that is secure and supports privacy by design
– Ability to support complex variable results determination procedures, e.g. taking account of retakes, absences, and exemptions
– Ability to enhance auto-marking technology – enhancing marking efficiency and reflecting how test takers will answer questions in a valid manner
Configuration and adaptation of the Inspera Assessment service, in parallel with the migration of Cambridge English Qualification test content, took just 18 months ahead of going live in March 2024.
Cambridge English Qualifications Digital was rolled out to approximately 400 test centres globally within 3 months in the spring of 2024. Since then, over 700,000 Cambridge English Test Components have been delivered per month.
A survey conducted in September 2024 gathered feedback from 194 test centres across 30 countries. The results were overwhelmingly positive: 92% of centres found the digital setup easy, and 90% reported a positive candidate experience. Since implementation, digital CEQs have been delivered in 87 countries, with all responses to subjective/open question types available for human marking within 24 hours of the test being taken, leading to 98% of test-takers receiving their scores within five days of completion.
The positive candidate experience and customer demand were highlighted as drivers for centres to offer more digital tests. One centre commented that “Once candidates have taken Digital, they do not want to return to paper-based CEQs”.
Cambridge University Press & Assessment remains committed to enhancing digital assessment experiences. Based on the success of CEQs Digital, further improvements will focus on continuing to meet evolving learner and test center needs. With technology-driven solutions at the forefront, the future of Cambridge English Qualifications is set to be more flexible, efficient and aligned with the digital world.
“This partnership has allowed us to bring new scalable digital products to our customers and to incorporate our requirements into the latest releases efficiently.
“We have established a good working dialogue regarding the latest assessment technology changes facing our respective organisations”.
