Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash
1–10 of 75 posts
Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash
#2They didn't just trade free speech for cash. They traded their academic integrity.
Talk to anyone who teaches at ANU/Monash/Melbourne and they'll tell you the same thing: most international Chinese students should fail by every metric there is, but there is tremendous pressure from the faculty to 'find marks' to get those students to scrape through and look the other way at their plagiarism and cheating.
It's like there are two sets of standards now. One for Chinese students, and one for everyone else.
Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash
#3They didn't just trade free speech for cash. They traded their academic integrity. Talk to anyone who teaches at ANU/Monash/Melbourne and they'll tell you the same thing: most international Chinese students should fail by every metric there is, but there is tremendous pressure from the faculty to 'find marks' to get those students to scrape through and look the other way at their plagiarism and cheating. It's like th…
This isn’t a new problem, people were saying the same thing 20 years ago. And it isn’t accurate or fair to say it is a problem only with students of one single nationality, it’s not. It’s really the conflict of interest inherent in fee-paying international students - if you fail too many of them, they will leave and not come back and you lose out on future revenue from them - worsened by the fact that lowering English language entry requirements improves enrolment and revenue but then the students struggle academically because they can’t understand the course and struggle with writing essays/assignments/exams in English.
Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash
#4They didn't just trade free speech for cash. They traded their academic integrity. Talk to anyone who teaches at ANU/Monash/Melbourne and they'll tell you the same thing: most international Chinese students should fail by every metric there is, but there is tremendous pressure from the faculty to 'find marks' to get those students to scrape through and look the other way at their plagiarism and cheating. It's like th…
This isn’t a new problem, people were saying the same thing 20 years ago. And it isn’t accurate or fair to say it is a problem only with students of one single nationality, it’s not. It’s really the conflict of interest inherent in fee-paying international students - if you fail too many of them, they will leave and not come back and you lose out on future revenue from them - worsened by the fact that lowering Englis…
While some milder pressures might exist for full fee paying students, they are not remotely comparable to the political and academic pressure exerted by the CCP through the export of international students. The faculty is explicitly protective of the interests of China[1]
You will not find headlines like [2] about any other full fee paying demographic. As much as I hate to say it, Australia more or less belongs to China [3]
[1] https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/university-...
[2] https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2015/05/29/u-s-schools-e...
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/d4slfj/australia...
Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash
#5Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn’t a new problem, people were saying the same thing 20 years ago. And it isn’t accurate or fair to say it is a problem only with students of one single nationality, it’s not. It’s really the conflict of interest inherent in fee-paying international students - if you fail too many of them, they will leave and not come back and you lose out on future revenue from them - worsened by the fact that lowering Englis…
While some milder pressures might exist for full fee paying students, they are not remotely comparable to the political and academic pressure exerted by the CCP through the export of international students. The faculty is explicitly protective of the interests of China[1] You will not find headlines like [2] about any other full fee paying demographic. As much as I hate to say it, Australia more or less belongs to Ch…
We need to say it loud and clear and reduce our dependency on Chinese money.
Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash
#6They didn't just trade free speech for cash. They traded their academic integrity. Talk to anyone who teaches at ANU/Monash/Melbourne and they'll tell you the same thing: most international Chinese students should fail by every metric there is, but there is tremendous pressure from the faculty to 'find marks' to get those students to scrape through and look the other way at their plagiarism and cheating. It's like th…
> It's like there are two sets of standards now. One for Chinese students, and one for everyone else.
At least in the UK, University of St Andrews, which has the highest percentage of international students in the country, offers a Foundation Year[1] to the applicants from the third-world countries, which must be taken before the 4-year undergraduate degree.
It reduces the knowledge gap, improves the language skills, and brings additional income to the university without affecting the quality and experience of the degree programs.
[1] https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/subjects/study-options/foundati...
Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash
#7They didn't just trade free speech for cash. They traded their academic integrity. Talk to anyone who teaches at ANU/Monash/Melbourne and they'll tell you the same thing: most international Chinese students should fail by every metric there is, but there is tremendous pressure from the faculty to 'find marks' to get those students to scrape through and look the other way at their plagiarism and cheating. It's like th…
> It's like there are two sets of standards now. One for Chinese students, and one for everyone else. At least in the UK, University of St Andrews, which has the highest percentage of international students in the country, offers a Foundation Year[1] to the applicants from the third-world countries, which must be taken before the 4-year undergraduate degree. It reduces the knowledge gap, improves the language skills,…
The cynic in me would think this is nothing more than an opportunity to make more money while guaranteeing that after the foundation year anyone can get into university.
Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash
#8[deleted]
Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's like there are two sets of standards now. One for Chinese students, and one for everyone else. At least in the UK, University of St Andrews, which has the highest percentage of international students in the country, offers a Foundation Year[1] to the applicants from the third-world countries, which must be taken before the 4-year undergraduate degree. It reduces the knowledge gap, improves the language skills,…
The cynic in me would think this is nothing more than an opportunity to make more money while guaranteeing that after the foundation year anyone can get into university.
There are no such guarantees – as far as I am aware – and as a former student I remember having a single Chinese classmate in my 4-year Computer Science degree program. After the Foundation Year, students of all nationalities were treated equally, and there were much more 1st year students from the US and the EU than from China.
Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
While some milder pressures might exist for full fee paying students, they are not remotely comparable to the political and academic pressure exerted by the CCP through the export of international students. The faculty is explicitly protective of the interests of China[1] You will not find headlines like [2] about any other full fee paying demographic. As much as I hate to say it, Australia more or less belongs to Ch…
We need to say it loud and clear and reduce our dependency on Chinese money.
China is big the way oceans are big and unless there is a really ugly war they are going to be the preeminent power in the Asia-Pacific for this century. 'Reduce our dependency on Chinese money' is a nice idea, but that would be like trying to reduce our dependency on the United States. A very difficult tightrope to walk.
Besides which, that sounds like a One-nation policy. That sort of sounds-sorta-racist/nationalist ideology won't fly in modern Australia.