ACT and CGIES Announce Strategic Alliance

March 13, 2003

IOWA CITY, Iowa—ACT, Inc. and CGIES, Inc. are pleased to announce that they are entering into a strategic alliance to enhance the transition of international students into English-medium colleges and universities in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

ACT, Inc., headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa, is an independent not-for-profit organization that provides assessment, research, information, and learning management services in the broad areas of education and workforce development. Campus Group International Education Services, Inc., located in Woodbury New Jersey, is the US branch of Campus Group Holdings, Pty Ltd. of Australia. CGH is a uniquely global education services and products provider, operating a wide variety of campuses, centers, and programs throughout the world that are designed to help international students achieve their educational and career goals through increased access to higher education.

In 1995, CGH developed the concept of a pre-university foundation studies program for global distribution. Now entitled the Global Assessment Certificate (GAC), the program provides international students access to English-medium universities worldwide. Currently the GAC is taught in sixteen countries at over one hundred locations. By 2005, the GAC will be delivered in twenty-two countries teaching 31,000 students in 225 locations.

ACT's guiding purpose—helping people achieve educational and career goals by providing information for life's transitions—makes it a natural partner for CGH's Global Assessment Certificate program. Through the use of various ACT products, including the ACT Assessment, COMPASS/ESL, and WorkKeys, GAC students will be evaluated in content areas such as writing, reading, science, mathematics, technology related skills, business related skills, and English as a second language. The incorporation of these ACT programs and services into the GAC program will enable international students to verify that they possess the skills necessary for success in a university degree program and help them achieve their ultimate goal—the opportunity to enter and complete a university degree program in an English speaking country.

ACT and CGIES anticipate that GAC students will first access assessments under the new alliance in January 2004.

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