It is fair to say that Australian universities’ international student boom could not have been achieved without dramatically lowering English-language standards, as well as restructuring assessments into group assignments to ensure non-English speaking background (NESB) international students pass.
As shown in the next chart, the three largest and fastest growing sources for international student enrolments – China, India and Nepal – are all NESB nations:
Therefore, in order to ensure a strong inflow of international student fees from these nations, universities are strongly incentivised to lower English standards. Indeed, to do otherwise would place their entire business models at risk.
Over the weekend, The Australian published an alarming article from Warwick Lough, a former Monash College English language teacher. Here, Lough warned that international students were being admitted into the university with barely functioning English-language proficiency, leaving them struggling in class:
[Lowe] said the university’s intensive English courses for international students did not give them enough language proficiency and left them struggling in university study. “This is not a grey area. It is an absurdity that they can enter with language which is wholly inadequate,” he said…
Mr Lough said most students who completed the English bridging courses at the college did not reach the standard of a 6.5 score in the IELTS English test that is the usual benchmark for international students to get entry to most degrees.
“In my view, most students at the end of the course appear to be well below 6.5”…
“The assessments are carefully crafted to allow about 90 per cent of students to pass.” He said speech and writing components of the internal test were often “very carefully rehearsed”…
Lough also contended that international students were being treated “dishonestly” and ripped-off by universities:
Two weeks ago, he sent a letter to all federal MPs outlining his concerns about international student English standards. In the letter, he said international students were treated “dishonestly”.
“They don’t get value for money, they don’t get what they pay for,” he wrote.
“My view is that all but a tiny minority of former bridging students, on completion of their university degree, would have no chance of surviving a job interview or functioning in a workplace.”
Last month’s explosive report by the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) similarly raised concern at the erosion of English standards, which is being facilitated by bogus bridging courses run for profit by universities:
Australian universities routinely compromise admissions standards to accommodate international students. Preparatory programs for students with lower English language test scores function as a paid work-around for international students who do not meet admissions standards. By prominently marketing such alternative pathways, Australian universities are in effect taking actions that reduce their financial risks by increasing their standards risks…
The fact that international students pay much higher fees than domestic ones for the same courses strongly incentivises universities to reduce admissions and academic standards to accommodate international students. Alternative admissions routes that allow international students to circumvent English language requirements and the widespread use of commission-based brokers invite willful negligence and outright abuse, as reported in the ABC Four Corners program ‘Cash Cows’…
For example, the University of Sydney offers ‘preparatory programs’ that allow international students to circumvent the usual admissions criteria. These programs are run by Taylor College, which is a 50-50 joint venture between the university and the for-profit education provider Study Group. The standard program costs $34,300 plus fees for a 40-week course. The University of Sydney has a university-wide minimum score of 6.5 on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test for direct admission…
However, students can gain admittance through a Taylor College preparatory program with a much lower minimum IELTS score of 5.0 (“modest user” with “partial command of the language”). Taylor College advertises that “95% of USFP [University of Sydney Foundation Program] students received offers to the University of Sydney”, which suggests that nearly all students who request an offer, receive one…
The ANU offers a similar alternative pathway for international students that allows them to gain admission with a IELTS score of just 4.0 (“not able to use complex language”) on individual bands…
Other elite Australian universities offer similar programs…
What a wonderful double-dipping scam the universities have developed.
They charge NESB international students tens-of-thousands of dollars for dubious ‘preparatory programs’ that circumvent IELTS requirements and guarantees backdoor entry to full-fee university courses.
Then once these NESB students are admitted, universities place them in group assessments with domestic English-speaking students whom effectively act as unpaid tutors, carry the load, and ensure they pass.
We know this scam is hugely unfair to domestic students, whose quality of education is being trashed. But neither is it fair to international students whom are paying a small fortune for questionable qualifications that leaves them badly unprepared for the future.
