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Universities forced to face addiction to foreign students’ money

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Re: Universities forced to face addiction to foreign students’ money

#61

At least in the US, rich foreign students shelling out big sums for US universities is one of the few legitimate paths towards immigration. You're paying 150-250k worth of access to an F1, CPT, OPT, a more streamlined path into the H-1B world, followed by permanent residency. You get to work for a US employer for a few years without having to bother with the lottery, while also applying to an H-1B at the same time. I…

Rights so the Chinese pay hundreds of thousands of do,Lara so they can get F1 jobs (restricted largely to on campus or has to be study related, so it doesn’t pay), OPT jobs (capped at 1 year) or H1B jobs (needs to be renewed every year, at least by the Chinese who rarely get more than a 1 year extension), so they can get permanent residency after 10-15 years of being on an H1 based on current figures.

Right, that makes complete sense.

Re: Universities forced to face addiction to foreign students’ money

#62
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really have to consider follow-on effects. It's like outsourcing all your manufacturing -- eventually you'll need something local and won't be able to get it, and everyone local who could otherwise have helped will resent you for selling out your industry.

Isn't this the reverse? China has outsourced higher education to the West. What follow on effects are you referring to? Besides, students are typically non-local in any university town.

Many of them go back

Re: Universities forced to face addiction to foreign students’ money

#64
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same attitude as you, but many of the wealthy, Chinese-raised students at my local (prestigious, private) university can't speak basic English. The school then has to choose to either fail the student or ignore their cheating. With a $250k incentive to choose the former, that's what they choose.

Has this been documented anywhere, by the way? You'd think that there would be more reporting around this topic.

https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/degrees-of-deception-promo/6...

Re: Universities forced to face addiction to foreign students’ money

#65
post #47

This is a problem in the UK too. The independent school (aka private school) sector has seen fees double or triple over the last 10-20 years. This is largely driven by rich foreign students, primarily Chinese, sending their kids to these schools. I don't particularly regret these bastions of class division destroying their reputation for money, but there are a lot of knock on effects. Independent schools used to be o…

It's only boarding schools. Many, if not most, independent schools do not offer boarding and thus don't have foreign pupils at all.

Boarding schools have always been for a minority and this hasn't changed because of foreign pupils.

Now, boarding schools are often keen on foreign pupils (esp. Chinese nowadays) because it IS actually good for their reputation: The Chinese education system is such that these pupils tend to ace maths and science subjects in exams and so the school can then market their outstanding GCSE and A levels results.

As for taxes: People who send their children to independent schools fund the public sector through their taxes in the same way as everyone else but do not use public sector resources at all. I think it is fair that they are not taxed twice on top of that.

Re: Universities forced to face addiction to foreign students’ money

#66
post #3

It's not like they are refunding the tuition for this semester. Hopefully things will get better in the fall and the universities can reopen.

Why should tuition be refunded anyway? People are still getting credits and can graduate.

Housing and meal plans should be refunded for the unused portion of the semester, yes.

Re: Universities forced to face addiction to foreign students’ money

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody wants to shut down their country, they just want thousands of deaths even less. And there ain't no way for people travelling by plane to follow social distancing.

but people traveling by plane can certainly be sent to concentrated quarantine facilities upon arrival and monitored on an hourly basis for two or three weeks.

China tried this in March and it failed rather spectacularly. Border officials were quickly overwhelmed and had to play it fast and loose; nobody knows who was responsible for what. In many cases, people showing symptoms who were supposed to be placed under medical observation were prematurely discharged, this plus some other oversight have resulted in at least one active disease cluster in Guangzhou. By the end of March the government had to massively reduce the number of arriving flights to make the passenger numbers more manageable.

As it always turns out, providing food and accomondation for tens of thousands of people is always easier said than done.

Re: Universities forced to face addiction to foreign students’ money

#68
post #13

I work at a University in Australia and have been on both sides of academic and professional. This unravelling was on the horizon for everybody, maybe not so soon, but definitely in the viewport. In an effort to drive up income streams there has been a slow erosion of Australian education (more at some universities than others) to cater for the international (Chinese and Indian predominantly) market. There are all so…

In Dublin, where the housing crisis is supported by an overabundance of "student accommodation" and airbnb rentals, the housing crisis disappeared overnight because of this virus. A friend of mine said she found a small apartment for two in Dublin 5 for 800 euro a month. Unbelievable.

>the housing crisis disappeared overnight because of this virus

Thats a bit disingenous and hyperbolic. It is true that more apartments are available (00's) due to Corona but the housing crisis is far from over.

Re: Universities forced to face addiction to foreign students’ money

#69
post #47

This is a problem in the UK too. The independent school (aka private school) sector has seen fees double or triple over the last 10-20 years. This is largely driven by rich foreign students, primarily Chinese, sending their kids to these schools. I don't particularly regret these bastions of class division destroying their reputation for money, but there are a lot of knock on effects. Independent schools used to be o…

> I have to subsidize education for the very rich or rich foreign nationals Not a penny of your tax goes to subsidising their education. The charitable status of private schools means that the money used for their education isn't taxed twice. I agree that private schooling tends to exacerbate divisions. The majority of state school provision in the UK is atrocious. I have more concern that very little is being done a…

> The majority of state school provision in the UK is atrocious.

I don't think this is really true anymore. I agree state schools were truly awful in the 80s/90s (my partner who went to state school didn't even learn times tables). Quality of state school has improved tremendously over the last 20 years, and I'd say it's very good these days. Especially as middle class families are priced out of independent schools. In fact I'd even say it may be better for your kids to go to the local state school nowadays, otherwise you are isolating them from their local community.

> Not a penny of your tax goes to subsidising their education.

I, of course, totally disagree :). I toured many London independent schools last year for secondary, and you just need to take a look at the amazing school grounds to see the benefits of charitable status. [1] These are for-profit institutions with huge bursaries that avoid paying almost all taxes. Any tax exemption is equivalent to a subsidy that I am funding as a taxpayer.

1. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charities-detaile...

Re: Universities forced to face addiction to foreign students’ money

#70
post #47

This is a problem in the UK too. The independent school (aka private school) sector has seen fees double or triple over the last 10-20 years. This is largely driven by rich foreign students, primarily Chinese, sending their kids to these schools. I don't particularly regret these bastions of class division destroying their reputation for money, but there are a lot of knock on effects. Independent schools used to be o…

It's only boarding schools. Many, if not most, independent schools do not offer boarding and thus don't have foreign pupils at all. Boarding schools have always been for a minority and this hasn't changed because of foreign pupils. Now, boarding schools are often keen on foreign pupils (esp. Chinese nowadays) because it IS actually good for their reputation: The Chinese education system is such that these pupils tend…

There were three Chinese students in sixth form at my independent day school when I was 16-18. They lived with a host family.

Searching for "family boarding" shows this isn't unique.

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