English language test requirements, regulator by regulator (Australia and New Zealand): five different bars, and one set of scores that changed on 23 April 2026

There is no Australian English standard and no Australasian one. There is an Ahpra standard covering thirteen health professions, two health boards that run their own, eight teacher registration boards with eight sets of numbers, a migration assessing authority that accepts one test only, and a New Zealand regime that is materially easier than all of them.

Two things to know before any of the numbers. Ahpra’s shared standard has four pathways, not five — and three of them are not tests at all. And Ahpra’s minimum scores changed on 23 April 2026, in a way that moved some tests down and one component sharply up.

The Ahpra standard: four pathways, thirteen professions

The standard was “approved by the Ministerial Council on 14 November 2024” and took effect on 18 March 2025, superseding the July 2015 version. Ahpra’s page states: “Changes to the minimum scores required are in effect from 23 April 2026.”

It applies to: Chinese medicine, chiropractic, dental, medical, medical radiation practice, occupational therapy, optometry, osteopathy, paramedicine, pharmacy, physiotherapy, podiatry and psychology. Nursing and midwifery, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practice, are not on that list — those two boards publish their own standards. The NMBA’s is dated the same day (18 March 2025) and carries the same 23 April 2026 score change, and applies more widely than people expect: “This registration standard applies to all nurses and midwives applying for initial registration, regardless of whether they qualified in Australia or overseas.”

The four pathways, in Ahpra’s words: “The combined education pathway / The school education pathway / The advanced education pathway, and / The test pathway.”

Pathway	What it requires
Combined education	“at least two years of your secondary education which was taught and assessed solely in English in a recognised country, and your qualification(s) for your profession, which were taught and assessed solely in English in a recognised country”
School education	“at least 10 years of your primary and secondary school education which was taught and assessed solely in English in a recognised country, and your qualification(s) for your profession, which were taught and assessed in any country solely in English”
Advanced education	“at least six years in total of (full-time equivalent) education, all taught and assessed solely in English in a recognised country”, with “The last period of education must have been completed no more than two years before applying for registration”
Test	“If you are unable to satisfy one of the other pathways set out in this standard this pathway is most suitable for you”

Read the school education pathway carefully — it is the only one where the professional qualification may have been taught in any country, provided it was taught solely in English. That is the pathway that reaches applicants from English-medium universities outside the recognised list, and it is the one most often overlooked.

The recognised country list, in full

This is the list that governs all three non-test pathways, and its contents are the single most common misconception in this area.

“Antigua and Barbuda / Dominica / New Zealand / Anguilla / Falkland Islands / Republic of Ireland / Australia / Gibraltar / Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha / The Bahamas / Grenada / St Kitts and Nevis / Barbados / Guernsey / St Lucia / Belize / Guyana / St Vincent and the Grenadines / Bermuda / Isle of Man / Trinidad and Tobago / British Indian Ocean Territory / Jamaica / United Kingdom / Canada / Jersey / United States of America / Cayman Islands / Malta / US Virgin Islands”

Thirty entries. India, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa, the Philippines, Nigeria, Malaysia and Pakistan are not on it — including several where the whole degree was taught and examined in English. Ahpra adds the standard caveat: “Other recognised countries approved by the National Boards from time to time will be published on the Board’s website. National Boards reserve the right at any time to revoke their approval of a recognised country.”

The Ahpra test scores, before and after 23 April 2026

Test	Old (taken on or before 22 Apr 2026)	Current (taken on or after 23 Apr 2026)
IELTS Academic	overall 7; 7 in listening, reading and speaking; 6.5 writing	overall 7; L 7 / R 7 / W 6.5 / S 7
OET	B in listening, reading, speaking; C+ in writing	numeric: L 350 / R 360 / W 350 / S 360
PTE Academic	overall 66; 66 in listening, reading, speaking; 56 writing	overall 63; L 58 / R 59 / W 60 / S 76
TOEFL iBT	total 94; 24 L, 24 R, 24 W, 23 S	total 91; L 22 / R 22 / W 23 / S 24
Cambridge C1 Advanced	(single Cambridge row) 185 overall	overall 178; L 175 / R 179 / W 180 / S 194
Cambridge C2 Proficiency	(single Cambridge row) 185 overall	overall 185; L 185 / R 185 / W 176 / S 185

The four changes worth noticing: OET abandoned letter grades for numbers; Cambridge C1 and C2 were split into separate rows; PTE’s overall fell but its speaking requirement rose to 76; and TOEFL’s total fell to 91. A PTE candidate who scored 66 across the board under the old table has a compliant overall under the new one and a non-compliant speaking score.

Three procedural rules apply to every test. IELTS must be “Academic paper and computer at test centre only”. TOEFL requires a specific selection: “you must select ‘Taking TOEFL for Australia’ when registering for your test.” And results may be combined only within limits: “We will only accept test results from: one test sitting, or a maximum of two test sittings in a 12-month period”, and “Results from different test providers cannot be combined.”

Validity is two years, with a working exception: results are accepted “within the two years before the date you lodge your application”, or later if since then you “have been continuously working” — which Ahpra defines as “working for at least 26 weeks full-time equivalent per year.”

The Medical Board adds two profession-specific alternatives: “successful completion of the profession specific New Zealand Registration Examination (NZREX) or Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board test (PLAB test).”

Teacher registration: eight boards, five different bars

Authority	Tests accepted	IELTS Academic minimum	Overall average?	Maximum test age
VIT (Vic)	IELTS Academic, ISLPR	S 8.0 / L 8.0 / R 7.0 / W 7.0	no	3 years
NESA (NSW)	IELTS Academic, ISLPR (teacher focused)	S 8 / L 8 / R 7 / W 7	no	3 years
QCT (Qld)	IELTS Academic, ISLPR	S 8.0 / L 8.0 / R 7.0 / W 7.0	7.5	3 years
TRBWA	IELTS Academic only	no band below 7; S and L at least 8	7.5	2 years
TRB SA	IELTS Academic, ISLPR	L 8.0 / S 8.0 / R 7.0 / W 7.0	7.5	2 years
TRB Tas	IELTS Academic only	no band below 7; S and L at least 8	7.5	2 years
TQI (ACT)	IELTS Academic, ISLPR	S 8 / L 8 / R 7 / W 7	no	2 years
TRB NT	IELTS Academic, ISLPR	R and W not below 7; S and L not below 8	7.5	3 years
AITSL (migration assessment)	IELTS Academic only	R 7.0 / W 7.0 / S 8.0 / L 8.0, on a single Test Report Form	no	3 years

The exemption trigger is the same everywhere, and it is not the Ahpra list. All eight boards and AITSL waive the test where the required study was completed in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada or the Republic of Ireland — six countries, against Ahpra’s thirty. The Northern Territory alone narrows it to “English-speaking Canada”. NESA additionally publishes a formal exemption route based on satisfying two of five criteria; VIT and QCT do not.

AITSL is the strictest on test type and says so: “We do NOT accept PTE, PEAT, ISLPR, TOEFL, Cambridge or any other form of English language test”, and “AITSL is unable to accept the IELTS Online and Indicator tests.” It does accept IELTS One Skill Retake, as does VIT. It also caps how far a doctorate helps: “AITSL will only consider a doctoral degree completed in one of the 6 listed English speaking countries to be a maximum of 2 years of full-time study towards meeting the study option.”

New Zealand: a lower bar and a wider door

The Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand accepts IELTS at a flat 7.0 in every band and 7.0 overall — against Australia’s 8.0 in speaking and listening. It accepts seven test types (IELTS, PTE Academic, TOEFL iBT, Cambridge, Trinity, LanguageCert, ISLPR), and its published PTE row is L 61 / R 62 / W 73 / S 79 / overall 69. Test results must be “within the past two years”.

Its non-test route is also wider: “Schooling in English: All primary and at least 3 years of secondary education in English, completed in NZ, Australia, Canada, Ireland, UK, USA, or South Africa.” South Africa appears on no Australian teacher board’s list. And New Zealand accepts te reo Māori competency in place of English — no Australian authority has an equivalent.

The Nursing Council of New Zealand requires English competence as one of its registration requirements alongside the qualification and competence assessments; the route each overseas nursing qualification takes is set out in which NCNZ assessment route applies.

The skills assessing authorities: mostly silent

VETASSESS and ACS publish no English language test requirement for a professional or general skills assessment on the pages we read — their criteria are about qualifications and employment. The accounting bodies likewise publish competency and degree requirements rather than English test scores. That absence is not permission to skip English: any English requirement for a visa is set by the Department of Home Affairs, not by the assessing authority, and any English requirement for registration is set by the regulator. Two different requirements, two different bodies, two different numbers.

How to plan one sitting that works

Sit the strictest test first. If your path involves AITSL as well as a state board, that is IELTS Academic at a test centre, because AITSL will not accept anything else and every teacher board accepts IELTS.

Aim above the component minimum where an overall average applies. Exactly 8/8/7/7 produces an overall of 7.5, which clears the five boards that require it — with nothing to spare. A single 6.5 anywhere fails everywhere.

Check the age of the result against the shortest window in your plan. Two years in WA, SA, Tasmania and the ACT; three years in Victoria, NSW, Queensland, the NT and at AITSL; two years at Ahpra with a continuous-working extension.

If you are in a health profession, check the date you sat the test, not the date you apply. Ahpra’s two score tables are keyed to when the test was taken — 22 April 2026 and earlier on one table, 23 April 2026 and later on the other.

Before booking anything, check whether a non-test pathway reaches you. Ahpra’s school education pathway in particular does not require the professional qualification to have been earned in a recognised country, only to have been taught and assessed solely in English.

What this page does not do

It does not tell you whether you meet a standard, and it is not a substitute for the standard itself. Ahpra publishes an evidence guide and a transition policy for the April 2026 score change which we have not read and which govern candidates who tested either side of that date. The contents of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board’s separate standard (dated 1 December 2019) we were not able to retrieve, so we do not say how it differs. Five of the eight teacher boards print no visible “last updated” date. Every number above was read on 3 September 2026 and should be re-checked against the live page before you book a test. For visa English requirements, go to the Department of Home Affairs — that is a different requirement set by a different body, and this site does not give migration advice.