The "quadrangle" (Four Corners), broadcast Monday night by the Australian-Guangzhou (ABC), revealed that Australia`s booming international education industry sees international students as a "cash cow" and that the higher education system is increasingly dependent on students who pay high tuition fees. Australia`s international education industry is worth $32 billion.
Academics and students are clamouring to expose the erosion of academic standards across Australia.
According to the latest data from 2017, there are 799371 international students studying in Australia. The majority of these students-350472 in the higher education sector-217696 in the TAFE / Vocational training Institute.
Australia and Guangzhou did a similar program in November, after a top university humanities lecturer met an international student who could not speak English at all. The student had to hire an interpreter to explain to the lecturer that although she could not speak English, she had finished her first year of reading academic degree.
Some majors charge students more than A $100000 and there is no guarantee that they will find a job after graduation.
One local student told the program group that they had helped other students in the group`s homework because they were poor and difficult to learn English.
Another teacher told the program group: "I do not object to the admission of international students, I am actually for their good." Many foreign students do not seem to understand the teacher`s instructions or the teaching materials before them. I will do everything I can to make sure that my students understand the topics discussed every week, and then I will have them send me what they write, and I will try to make them more fluency in English. "
Many teaching staff say universities are risking their reputation because many students do not have a high level of learning.
"admissions to students who do not have the right qualifications, do not meet proper preconditions or have no corresponding language skills can lead to failure sooner or later. This is not what a university should do. It is not the point of education," said one scholar.
Industry insiders warn that the problem needs to be addressed as the number of international students continues to grow.
"I think this is the car accident scene, the problem is getting worse and the new government is going to have to deal with it," said a private education adviser.
The influx of international students has led to cheating scandals and falling academic standards in Australian colleges and universities, which have been widely reported in the media.
In 2011, economics`s Foster (Gigi Foster) published a wealth of evidence from real-life experience that a large number of non-English-speaking (NESB) students are lowering higher education standards, a problem that for the first time has become a focus of attention:
Foster tried to study whether students from non-English backgrounds performed worse than other students, and how they affected other students` scores when they took part in the class. He used business school data from two member schools at the Australian University of Science and Technology (alliance) to provide new empirical evidence on these issues.
The results show that even if students are carefully selected, international students and NESB students still perform significantly worse than other students. Both have a big impact, and the gap will not disappear after the first semester, but NESB students generally have lower scores than other students. Moreover, if there are NESB students in the class, the scores of other English-speaking students will drop, but if there are local NESB students in the class, the scores will all benefit.
Since then, the media have regularly exposed academic scandals.
For example, the 2014 scandal over the use of essay by Chinese students made headlines across Australia, and report scholars accused their universities of admitting "illiterate" students, leading to a systematic cheating.
In 2015, Fairfax (Fairfax) and Australia-Guangzhou (ABC) reported that the Institute collected cash rebates to help overseas workers and students education fake in order to obtain Australian visas.
Also in 2015, Australia-Guangzhou`s "quadrangle" also made a program, revealing that cheating and plagiarism are common in Australian colleges and universities, driven by international students.
However, authorities did nothing. In the past five years, the number of international students has soared from more than 300,000 in 2013 to 500000 by the end of 2018.
At the same time, the concentration of international students in Australian universities has reached an alarming level:
As a result, it is no surprise that a survey conducted last year by Australia and Guangzhou "found that a large number of foreign students could not communicate effectively in English, attend classes or do their homework alone." Academics, employers and education experts also told Australia and Guangzhou that "English standards are often too low or can be avoided through loopholes, and students often have a lot of pressure in class that can lead to cheating."
Most international students come from China (231191), followed by India (87615) and Brazil (36496). Tens of thousands more come from Nepal, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Colombia and Indonesia.
Statistics on the number of overseas students in Australia
- 350472 persons in higher education
- Vocational education 217696 people
- ELICOS 155448
- 25762 in primary and secondary schools
- 49993 non-academic degree subjects
- Total 799371
Where do all the overseas students study?
- 304545 people in the new state
- Weizhou 253,076
- 123737 people in Kunzhou
- 53897 people in Western Australia
- South Australia 35821
- ACT 16910
- 8889 people in Tahrena
- 2495 people in the Northern Territory
