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Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash

economist.com

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Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash

#11

Post by lwakefield »

missosoup wrote: post #2

They 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…

I TAed a compulsory "Introduction to Engineering" class at USyd. The class itself was dead easy, the equivalent of the fizzbuzz interview question.

The single assessment was "review an engineering article" where I caught 7 students (all international) plagiarizing. Not just borrowing a sentence or two, but lifting entire paragraphs and gluing them together with broken English. In one case a student had gone as far as submitting Stephen Hawking's "Space and Time Warps", verbatim.

I raised all of these to the professor. Despite all students signing the "I know what plagiarism is, I won't do it and understand there I will be kicked out if I do" - the professor knocked back all of my claims and all students passed.

It was a huge disappointment to realize that this is how the "education system" works.

Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash

#12

Post by tjpnz »

Similar stuff is going on in NZ. A university in Auckland recently halted a pro-Democracy protest organised by HK students after a university official was summoned to the Chinese embassy. There were of course no issues when mainland students organised a pro-Beijing rally.

Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash

#13

Post by mmerlin »

lwakefield wrote: post #11
missosoup wrote: post #2

They 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…

I TAed a compulsory "Introduction to Engineering" class at USyd. The class itself was dead easy, the equivalent of the fizzbuzz interview question. The single assessment was "review an engineering article" where I caught 7 students (all international) plagiarizing. Not just borrowing a sentence or two, but lifting entire paragraphs and gluing them together with broken English. In one case a student had gone as far as…

Yes! My partner eventually quit her job university lecturing because she was explicitly told time and time again she was never allowed to fail any of the international "full fee paying" students. If she lodged a fail mark she was raked over the coals and forced to change it as a passing mark.

She was only allowed to give failing marks to Australians who pay approximately half the university fees compared to international students.

Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash

#14

Post by apta »

tjpnz wrote: post #12

Similar stuff is going on in NZ. A university in Auckland recently halted a pro-Democracy protest organised by HK students after a university official was summoned to the Chinese embassy. There were of course no issues when mainland students organised a pro-Beijing rally.

Any sources on this?

Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash

#15

Post by caf »

tjpnz wrote: post #12

Similar stuff is going on in NZ. A university in Auckland recently halted a pro-Democracy protest organised by HK students after a university official was summoned to the Chinese embassy. There were of course no issues when mainland students organised a pro-Beijing rally.

Pretty sad state of affairs when students will halt a protest on the orders of the university administration.

Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash

#16

Post by tjpnz »

apta wrote: post #14
tjpnz wrote: post #12

Similar stuff is going on in NZ. A university in Auckland recently halted a pro-Democracy protest organised by HK students after a university official was summoned to the Chinese embassy. There were of course no issues when mainland students organised a pro-Beijing rally.

Any sources on this?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/395573/aut-denies-cancel...

Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash

#17

Post by hdfbdtbcdg »

roenxi wrote: post #10
holografix wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/nationalis…

Hang on are you accusing the OPs of racism because they are opposed to corruption?

Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash

#18

Post by Vintila »

mmerlin wrote: post #13
lwakefield wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I TAed a compulsory "Introduction to Engineering" class at USyd. The class itself was dead easy, the equivalent of the fizzbuzz interview question. The single assessment was "review an engineering article" where I caught 7 students (all international) plagiarizing. Not just borrowing a sentence or two, but lifting entire paragraphs and gluing them together with broken English. In one case a student had gone as far as…

Yes! My partner eventually quit her job university lecturing because she was explicitly told time and time again she was never allowed to fail any of the international "full fee paying" students. If she lodged a fail mark she was raked over the coals and forced to change it as a passing mark. She was only allowed to give failing marks to Australians who pay approximately half the university fees compared to internati…

International students actually pay about 4x what a domestic student pay [1].

[1] https://www.adelaide.edu.au/degree-finder/2020/bengh_behe&es...

Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash

#19

Post by dis-sys »

roenxi wrote: post #10
holografix wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/nationalis…

> That sort of sounds-sorta-racist/nationalist ideology won't fly in modern Australia.

just grab another VB sit back and watch then?

Re: Australian universities are accused of trading free speech for cash

#20

Post by peterkelly »

missosoup wrote: post #2

They 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…

Can confirm. I used to teach Computer Science at Adelaide University. One of the factors in my decision to leave academia was the appalling extent to which academic standards were being lowered to cater for international students (mostly from China) who should not have even been accepted but brought in lots of cash.
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