Can IELTS writing meet the needs of university academic writing? A qualitative study

IELTS is considered as one of the widely recognised academic English tests for the entry of higher education in English-speaking countries, but whether students with good IELTS performance will also perform well in higher education institutions remains controversial. This paper aims to explore the differences/gaps between the assessment criteria of IELTS academic writing and university's academic writing. This is achieved by analysing the IELTS writing band descriptors of IELTS academic writing task 2 and IELTS examiners' comments of sample writings, compared with the academic writing assessment criteria of eight universities in the UK and Hong Kong. It is found that although there are some similarities between requirements of IELTS writings and university papers, there are also very important differences. The research results show that university academic writing puts forward higher requirements for students in terms of knowledge and understanding, research skill, analysis ability, and plagiarism avoidance. Therefore, students reach the IELTS writing assessment criteria does not equate with adapting to academic writing in universities. Universities are suggested to provide targeted academic writing guidance courses/workshops to help students adapt to academic writing better and faster.