Academic Readiness Screening ACRES for Applicants of Master's Programmes
ACRES is a method of assessing language and academic readiness of applicants as part of the student selection process for some master’s degree programmes taught in English at the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥. The set of tasks in ACRES consists of items aimed at determining applicant ability for accessing appropriate language and academic skills as part of a wider process for determining suitability for programmes.
ACRES process and timeline for applicants of Master 's programmes
Academic readiness will be assessed only for those applicants whose degrees and backgrounds used for proving eligibility for JYU master’s degree programmes taught in English meet the requirements set by the programme and move forward in the selection process.
The selected applicants will be invited around late-February to complete a pre-task in an online-environment around late February / early-March. For the pre-task, the programme will contact the applicants and invite them to participate. Applicants will receive the materials for preparation a few days ahead of time.
Following initial preparation, the applicant then participates in the online pre-task activity through a platform such as Moodle. Pre-task activities have a set time in the platform for completion of the task. The goal of the pre-task is to assess applicant reading strategies, writing strategies, critical thinking skills and dialogic academic discussion through a written text format. The pre-task constitutes the reading and writing part of the academic readiness and language proficiency screening and is assessed by the Centre for Multilingual Academic Communication (Movi).
If the applicant demonstrates appropriate academic skill levels for reading and writing, the programme will invite the applicant for an interview. Instructions for the interview will be sent via email around early / mid-March to those applicants selected for the interviews held around mid- to late March. Part of the interview will also include the assessment of oral academic language skills, including listening, speaking and interaction. The goal of this aspect of the interview is to assess applicant information management, critical thinking and dialogic oral interaction skills and is assessed by Movi. The structured interview will be recorded, and the recordings will only be used for student admission purposes.
Applicants are responsible themselves for providing themselves the space, time and equipment to enable participation in both the online pre-task as well as the online interview of the application process. Individual arrangements can be made if the applicant has a diagnosed disability or medical condition that affects their ability to participate in the admission process, such as hearing or visual impairment or dyslexia. Please see Individual arrangements for master's applicants | Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ (jyu.fi)
For the Admission round held in January 2025, the proposed schedule is 24-27 February for the written pretask and 12-19 March for the interviews. Dates will be later confirmed for the selected applicants with further information on the process.
ACRES is one aspect of the overall evaluation criteria used in the final selection of applicants to a JYU master’s degree programme taught in English. For the specific criteria used for ACRES assessment, click here.
All applicants will be informed of admission results via email by the deadline given on the university’s website.
Master's programmes involved in ACRES and their admission criteria
In some programmes ACRES is the only means to demonstrate language and academic skills, whereas in other progammes ACRES is used alongside other means, such as validated language tests (e.g. ToEFL, IELTS) and previous degrees. You can view the programme specific data, and ACRES evaluation criteria, as well as other admission criteria from the links below.
How to prepare for ACRES
ACRES is not a validated language test, measuring and evaluating separate language skills. The purpose of ACRES is to recognize applicants who are appropriately suited for studying in the academic programmes. These programmes require academic English and independent study skills, as well as pro-activeness. Therefore, applicants need to demonstrate that they possess these skills for completing work within a given time frame. Skills examined in ACRES include academic reading, writing, and oral interaction in English, self-directedness, and information management.
The skills assessed in ACRES are skills that applicants should have acquired during their earlier academic studies. Reading and examining academic materials is a good way to prepare for the written pre-task. Practicing oral interaction and self-presentation skills is beneficial for the interview. Additionally, focusing on self-management skills for working within a limited time frame would be useful.
ACRES and AI
ACRES is an assessment of an applicant’s academic readiness and designed in such a way that AI cannot comprehend and/or address the given tasks from your program. Also, posting AI generated answers as your own is plagiarism, a serious academic breach of ethical practice at JYU. Applicants are advised not to soley rely on AI when completing tasks for ACRES. However, in accordance with JYU AI regulations, applicants can use AI tools to polish and elaborate on their own original text and ideas. If this is done, the use and help of AI must be acknowledged and citation practices should be applied for the parts of the text that use AI. ACRES tasks are checked with tools such as Turnitin plagiarism checker, which includes an AI detection tool.
AI will also be used in ACRES-assessment of the applicant as an aid for the raters, just as in e.g. ToEFL iBT where the test scores are based on a combination of AI scoring and certified human raters. No personal details are entered into AI in ACRES, only the answer text the applicant produces, which should not contain any personal information.
Applicants have the right to oppose the use of AI when dealing with their answer for the task as assessing the applicant’s academic readiness can be regarded as profiling. If the applicants oppose the use of AI in ACRES for assesmetn of their answer text, the applicants must inform JYU - Movi of this within seven days after the application period has ended. This means that if you are applying for an English-taught master’s degree programme in 2025, the written notification of your opposition with your full name, date of birth, JYU programme(s) you applied for must reach the university / Movi by 29 January 2025 at 3:00 p.m. (EET). See contact details below. The academic readiness of the applicant will then be assessed solely by Movi raters.
More information on the processing of personal information: Applying for a study place at JYU – Privacy notice | Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥