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http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2015/04/20/4217741.htm
Degrees of Deception
By Linton Besser and Peter Cronau
Updated April 21, 2015 18:01:00
KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: They promise a top-line education but they pay dodgy agents offshore to drum
up business...
ROBERT WALDERSEE, DR., EXEC. DIR., CORRUPTION PREVENTION, ICAC: The university managers had
personal and financial relationships with the agents.
KERRY O'BRIEN: ... turn a blind eye to cheating...
ZENA O'CONNOR, DR., SESSIONAL LECTURER, FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN AND PLANNING,
UNI. OF SYDNEY: There is an unwritten rule not to fail students.
KERRY O'BRIEN: ... and turn out poorly trained graduates.
LINTON BESSER, REPORTER: Would they have been safe in a hospital?
BARBARA BEALE, LECTURER (RET'D.), SCHOOL OF NURSING, UNI. OF WESTERN SYDNEY: No. No way.
ZENA O'CONNOR: Education is not an industry.
KERRY O'BRIEN: What is going on in our universities? Welcome to Four Corners.
They're supposed to be centres of excellence in learning. They're supposed to be securing this country's economic
future and social wellbeing through the next generations of well-educated graduates.
They're selling access to millions of foreign students and reaping many billions of dollars of revenue.
But now the alarm has been raised that, increasingly, Australian universities are exposing themselves to corrupt
practice, to lower standards, to systemic abuse of the system.
One instance you'll see tonight is the revelation from whistleblowers that some foreign students and other poor
English speakers are graduating as nurses from Australian universities, dangerously under-qualified.
Universities have turned increasingly to foreign students regularly recruited through corrupt agencies to fill the gap
left by a decline in funding from the public purse, which Education Minister Christopher Pyne wants to cut further.
Academics are under pressure to pass students, irrespective of their ability, in order to keep revenue from
overseas students flowing in.
Linton Besser's story tonight reveals a sorry state: corruption, widespread plagiarism, cheating and exploitation.
LINTON BESSER: On this trading floor, an Australian commodity is running hot. But it's not coal or iron ore for
sale: it's our other major export to the world - tertiary education.
This is the booming billion-dollar market in international students that now underpins the survival of Australia's
universities.
ROBERT WALDERSEE: Universities are fully aware there are problems with, with international student businesses
they operate. But it is a very difficult problem they face. They are heavily dependent on the revenue. It's a cutthroat industry.
LINTON BESSER: Right now, Australia is gripped by the question of how to pay for our university education.
But there's a more fundamental question to be asked: what exactly are we getting for our money? Have our
universities traded away academic standards in the race for cash?
ZENA O'CONNOR: There is a culture of leniency. Help them through, help them to get through. Do whatever it
takes. Bend over backwards. Help them to get through. Let them resubmit and resubmit.
PAUL FRIJTERS, LECTURER, SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS, UNI. OF QUEENSLAND: We've got to pass the vast
majority of our students, no matter what their level is, no matter what their prior knowledge is, no matter how much
or how little effort they put in.
ROBERT WALDERSEE: The conditions within the university are conducive to corruption.
LINTON BESSER: The New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption has got some big scalps,
including some of the state's most corrupt politicians.
Now it's turned its sights onto universities.
ROBERT WALDERSEE: Students being exploited; students cheating; students bribing academics; academics
being pressured to turn a blind eye to problems.
LINTON BESSER: In a new report, corruption prevention director Dr Robert Waldersee has raised the alarm about
universities' troubling use of agents offshore to recruit students.
ROBERT WALDERSEE: So every single university we spoke to has said that, at some point, they've had problems
with some of their agents: with false documentation and often collusion with their students.
The risk is they're going to put applicants through to the university with fake qualifications, or who they know have
cheated on tests, or who are trying to undertake some sort of visa fraud.
LINTON BESSER: Four Corners decided to find out how education agents operate in Australia's biggest overseas
market, China.
We went undercover, inside agencies servicing Australia's universities.
Vice-chancellors have accepted as necessary the use of these unregulated middlemen to recruit the vast numbers
of overseas students on whom they now rely.
This Beijing agent is called Shinyway. It has represented universities including Queensland, Monash, Sydney,
Newcastle, Southern Cross, ACU, ANU and UTS.
Our undercover reporter is asking how the agent can help if his child has a poor academic record. He is then told
Shinyway will accept a forged school transcript.
SHINYWAY ADVISER (translation): Make some variation and make it look normal. As long as it's not lower than
60, I can process it. I don't want them to be written too high either.
LINTON BESSER: This time, it's EduGlobal, who also represents a string of prestigious local universities such as
Monash, Melbourne, Queensland, Griffith, Tasmania, Southern Cross, Western Sydney, Macquarie and UTS.
UNDERCOVER REPORTER (translation): Is it possible to make it look better?
EDUGLOBAL ADVISER (translation): You can. It's acceptable as long as the school affixes their stamp on it.
LINTON BESSER: This hidden camera footage raises alarming questions about the integrity of international
student admissions to a host of Australian universities.
EDUGLOBAL ADVISER (translation): As long as the academic transcript can show a result of at least 70, we
guarantee the issue of an offer letter.
LINTON BESSER: Four Corners' undercover journalist also made a remarkable discovery about how lax English
requirements are becoming to gain a student visa.
This agency is EIC.
She is promising special help to get around the robust English language test, known as IELTS, that has traditionally
been used to enter an Australian university.
EIC ADVISER (translation): If this kid can't get a reasonable mark or close to it, we could arrange an internal test.
The IELTS test is hard. The internal test is comparatively easy: listening, reading and writing, three parts. The level
of difficulty will decrease.
LINTON BESSER: Down the road is AOJI, one of the biggest agents in the country. It made a similar offer.
AOJI ADVISER (translation): To enrol into a university there is a standard, but through our application we could
manage that.
LINTON BESSER: The agent suggests the student could sit an alternative exam called Versant.
AOJI ADVISER (translation): The 48th ranked university in the world, UNSW, which is rated third in Australia: they
have their own internal test system. It is called Versant. It is acknowledged by the international community and is
the same as IELTS.
LINTON BESSER: But it's not the same: it's much easier.
Since 2012, the Government has asked universities, not the Department of Immigration, to determine who gets a
visa to enter the country to study. It no longer asks that entrants meet a nationally recognised standard.
And universities, which are desperate to increase the flow of overseas students, can now decide how many come
into the country.
AOJI ADVISER (translation): Some people might have difficulty with IELTS. They could use this system.
ROBERT WALDERSEE: The falsification of documents that comes through from students is often done in collusion
with the, ah, agents themselves. In some cases, the universities have hired independent verifiers to check
documents and qualifications and only to find that the students and the agents have been colluding or bribing the
document verifiers as well.
LINTON BESSER: Barmak Nassirian is a Washington DC-based specialist on international education.
BARMAK NASSIRIAN, FMR DIR., US ASSOC. OF COLLEGIATE REGISTRARS: When you put such an agent,
such a gatekeeper on commission, the risk that sending an adequate number of warm bodies, ah, may be
paramount for them. The risk that they may engage in manipulation, embellishment or other kinds of academic
shenanigans, just to make sure they meet their quota, ah, is not negligible.
LINTON BESSER: In America, the college code of conduct has cautioned against the payment of incentives to
offshore agents and commissions have been banned domestically.
There's no such ruling in Australia, even though universities have already been compromised by these
relationships.
ROBERT WALDERSEE: We were told in one case where the university managers had personal and financial
relationships with the agents they were supposed to be overseeing. And the university now has to rotate its
managers to stop that corruption developing.
LINTON BESSER: These agents usually charge students and their families for their services. What they don't tell
them is they also pocket often secret commissions from Australian universities seeking a winning edge over others
around the world.
In total, these commissions are estimated to amount to hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Students are none
the wiser.
IRIS, CIVIL ENGINEERING STUDENT, UNSW: They were sort of trying to say that University of Sydney, maybe,
is better.
LINTON BESSER: Did the agent ever say that he or she was being paid by the universities as well?
IRIS: Mmm, no. I'm thinking maybe University of Sydney is paying them a higher rate. (Laughs)
(Iris and Josie are serving dinner for themselves and Linton)
JOSIE, ARCHITECTURE STUDENT, UNSW: Smells yummy.
LINTON BESSER: Iris and Josie are just two of the 250,000 international students in Australia.
JOSIE: Do you use chopstick?
LINTON BESSER: They might not know it but they are the vital income stream keeping Australia's universities
afloat.
JOSIE: I need to take a picture of my masterful...
LINTON BESSER: But they're highly conscious of what it's costing their parents.
(to Iris) Just tell me again, how much it is?
IRIS: Oh, they used to be, last year it was $16,000 for each semester. This time it's $18,000, so it's pretty much,
my parents say, "After four years we ha- we can buy you a house."
LINTON BESSER: Iris and Josie are good students but even they are under considerable pressure.
Iris hopes her $140,000 degree will lead to a job in Australia and permanent residency - or PR.
(to Iris) And do you feel the pressure of how expensive that is? Do you think about that?
IRIS: Yeah, I do, 'cause, um, my parents say, ah, "You'd better stay in Australia and get a PR, otherwise if you
come back to China it's really pointless."
LINTON BESSER: But there are big obstacles to overcome and the biggest of all is the English language.
IRIS: The first semester of my first year, um, I just came into uni and, ah, I was doing an assignment with a local
group.
In the beginning I couldn't understand anything they said. I can understand the lecturer. I can understand all the
textbook, but I can't understand normal conversation.
After a while they really just get familiar with me. They say, "At the beginning we thought you have antisocial, some
sort of problem."
(Josie and Linton laugh)
IRIS: I was like, "No! I don't have antisocial problems." (Laughs) Yeah, they just - now, some of them still think I'm
weird just because the first impression is: I'm so quiet.
LINTON BESSER: Alex Barthel used to run the language centre at the University of Technology, Sydney. He has
been a long-standing advocate for higher English language entry standards for universities.
ALEX BARTHEL, HIGHER EDUCATION ACADEMIC LANGUAGE & LEARNING CONSULTANT: Academic staff
increasingly are frustrated by the fact that they are there to teach pharmacy or engineering or IT or whatever
they're, they're teaching. And they basically say, "It is not my job to help somebody with 65 spelling errors on the
first page of an assignment. It's not my job to teach them basic English grammar."
LINTON BESSER: Although the Federal Government has abandoned a national standard, The International
English Language Testing System - or IELTS for short - still recommends a score of seven out of nine for university
entry.
But most students arrive here with far lower scores than that: scores as low as 4.5.
ALEX BARTHEL: They're coming in believing that, "If the university says that I require an IELTS 5.5, I believe the
university and I trust them that they have told me the truth about what's required. Now I find that, in fact, to be able
to read the text that I'm asked to read in, in my, in my degree course, I find that I don't understand, er, what it is. I
don't understand the questions that I'm asked in assessment tasks."
LINTON (to Iris and Josie): You both have such wonderful English but do you think other international students: do
you think that's their biggest challenge?
IRIS: I think it is.
JOSIE: Actually, it is.
IRIS: It is. One of my friends, who came from China - we did a foundation study, so we are really used to it, but he
just came straight here, straightaway here and he says he has a headache in English.
JOSIE: That depends on which kind of Chinese they are. If you meet some Chinese, they just play with Chinese.
They will never improve their English forever.
LINTON BESSER: In fact, in the beginning, Iris and Josie could not speak or write in English well enough to get
entry to their degrees.
But like thousands of others, the university still offered them a place, as long as they completed a one-year bridging
program, which involves a 10- to 20-week language course.
Students who complete these pathway or foundation programs are never then subjected to another IELTS exam
and are funnelled into the first or even second year of their degree program.
ALEX BARTHEL: Of course it's a loophole, because some of them fail and some of them don't fail. And that's,
that's, that's the shocking thing, as far as I'm concerned: is those students who come into second year or even the
first year, with a very, very low language proficiency, er, level, ah, who manage to pass through their courses.
ZENA O'CONNOR: Often their emails and their essays are almost impossible to decipher. Um, that's in a very
small proportion of cases but that does beg the question: have these students passed the basic, ah, test for
university entry in terms of written, written English?
LINTON BESSER: And some of these are students that are at the end of their degree?
ZENA O'CONNOR: And some of these students are at the end of their degree. It's horrifying. I don't know what to
say about that.
LINTON BESSER: Two months ago, Dr Zena O'Connor invited Four Corners into the life of a modern academic.
She teaches units for the design and architecture faculty and, as one of a rising number of casuals, O'Connor
teaches online from home and with little faculty support.
It's an isolating experience but it's a big money spinner for the University of Sydney.
ZENA O'CONNOR: I teach one subject bringing in between $250,000 and $450,000. It's one elective. There are
hundreds of other electives. There are hundreds of other core subjects. Each of these are bringing in similar
amounts o- of money. The, the income stream, particularly from international students, is huge. Make no mistake: it
is huge.
LINTON BESSER: At Sydney University, international students now make up a quarter of all enrolments. At other
universities like RMIT in Melbourne, they're almost 50 per cent of the cohort.
With thousands of students often struggling with English, the pressure to pass is helping to fuel a black market.
ZENA O'CONNOR: I'm, I'm staggered by the increase in plagiarism. Ah, to start with: in my experience, it was a
very small proportion - you know, maybe two, three, four per cent. I would peg it now at being much, much higher:
well over 50 per cent.
Ah, and some of the cases of extreme plagiarism, where a student has plagiarised at least 80 per cent if not up to
100 per cent of their paper: that proportion is growing and that level of extreme plagiarism I didn't see five, 10 years
ago.
The students handed in their first assignments. Ah, the deadline was last Friday so I'm just finishing off the marking
of those now.
LINTON BESSER: We caught up again with O'Connor recently to see how her class is performing. Of the 53
papers she had marked, half had earned a fail.
ZENA O'CONNOR: As you can see from this list, all of the students who've been highlighted: they've got very bad
marks and the reason for that predominantly is they've either plagiarised or cut and pasted to such an extent that,
um, they've earned themselves a fail mark.
As you see from some of the marks - 10, 15, 18 - those students have plagiarised probably more than 80 per
cent...
LINTON BESSER: Wow.
ZENA O'CONNOR: ... in their assignments. Yep.
LINTON BESSER: The results are indicative of the pattern she has seen for years.
She hasn't instituted formal proceedings against any students for plagiarism because, she says, she was told to do
all she could to pass them.
ZENA O'CONNOR: The response would be: thank you for your feedback. And that has been the same response
every time I bring it to the attention of anyone at, at university. And that seems to be the end of it. It doesn't, it's not
investigated.
LINTON BESSER: And what about the individual students involved?
ZENA O'CONNOR: Um, they're offered another chance to resubmit - and another chance.
LINTON BESSER: Zena O'Connor says, as a sessional academic, she has been left on her own to manage this
problem.
ZENA O'CONNOR: It seems to me that there is an unwritten rule not to fail students. That isn't spoken about, but
I'm advised to give students every concession possible, every opportunity to resubmit and resubmit, even when the
semester is finished and so on.
LINTON BESSER: We approached Sydney University's vice-chancellor, Michael Spence, for an interview, but he
declined.
In a statement the university said Dr Spence will soon "chair a taskforce on academic misconduct." It also said:
"International students must meet stringent entry requirements including English language proficiency."
(Footage of Murray Fisher holding a tutorial)
MURRAY FISHER, ASSOC. PROF., SYDNEY NURSING SCHOOL, UNI. OF SYDNEY: So why a tutorial on
academic dishonesty and plagiarism?
STUDENT: So we know what's expected of us?
MURRAY FISHER: Yeah. It's to make sure that everyone is on the same page as to what your responsibilities are
in...
LINTON BESSER: Plagiarism is now such a problem, it's the focus of one of the very first tutorials for all Sydney
University nursing students.
(to Murray Fisher) Are they on notice from here on in?
MURRAY FISHER: They're certainly aware and therefore if something does happen, that, um, they do, um,
something that is academically dishonest or, or is plagiarism, it then is, I suppose, harder for them to claim that it
was reckless or innocently done.
(to class) The presentation of work containing...
LINTON BESSER: Associate Professor Murray Fisher explains the university's formal policy on plagiarism.
MURRAY FISHER (to class): Then we have this thing called "negligent and dishonest plagiarism."
LINTON BESSER: The policy runs to 13 pages and describes an array of complex procedures.
MURRAY FISHER (to class): Plagiarism means presenting another person's work as one's own work by
presenting, copying or reproducing it without appropriate acknowledgement.
LINTON BESSER: Many say formal procedures to tackle plagiarism are so bureaucratic, they actually deter
academics from reporting it.
ALEX BARTHEL: To nail a student who has plagiarised is a very complex, lengthy, er, administrative procedure. In
other words, the student has to be identified, has to be documented, it has to be proven, it has to be taken to a
committee and so on and so on.
ZENA O'CONNOR: That process is quite onerous and it's my experience that most sessional staff just don't bother.
They just don't bother reporting it. They'll ask the student to resubmit instead.
PAUL FRIJTERS: The exponential of this plus A...
LINTON BESSER: Another reason why plagiarism is under-reported is the increase in casual teaching contracts.
According to Queensland University's Professor Paul Frijters, renewal often depends on positive student
evaluations.
PAUL FRIJTERS: For a sessional academic, this is career-making or breaking: whether or not they, ah, they are
seen to be liked by their students. So teaching evaluations - which are effectively, how do the students think about
you? are, are make-or-break for their careers: ah, whether or not they get tenure. And in that, it's definitely
important for them not to, ah, not to be seen to go against the party line.
(footage of Murray Fisher leading a tour of a laboratory)
MURRAY FISHER (to students): This is our main lab. There are other...
LINTON BESSER: It might be dangerous to let weak students through a degree in design, but it's potentially deadly
in nursing.
MURRAY FISHER (to students): ...mimics the, the real setting of a hospital.
LINTON BESSER: Until last year, Barbara Beale was a lecturer at one of the biggest nursing faculties in the
country: the University of Western Sydney.
She is speaking out tonight because she fears some UWS nursing graduates may not be safe working with sick
patients.
(to Barbara Beale) Do you think it's the case, Barbara, that students have got through and graduated with a degree
from UWS in nursing who shouldn't have been allowed to do so?
BARBARA BEALE: Yes, I do think that is the case. I do.
LINTON BESSER: For Barbara, nursing has been a life-long love. She had worked as a registered nurse and
midwife for decades.
But for the next 26 years she was an academic at UWS, rising to acting department head.
In 2012, just two years before she retired, she was awarded a vice-chancellor's Excellence in Teaching Award.
But now she laments what she says is a dramatic fall in standards.
BARBARA BEALE: A lot of students end up in the aged care sector. Who do we have in the aged care sector? The
most vulnerable, ill people. And we have students who may have been pushed through university looking after
them. Now, in the aged care sector there is not much supervision. Ah, very quickly they might find themselves
being the only registered nurse on duty. And that is something that frightens me.
LINTON BESSER: An incident at this private Sydney hospital supports Beale's concerns.
In 2009 a new nurse who had just graduated from UWS, Bhavesh Shah, fed a medicine cup of Morning Fresh
dishwashing liquid to a 79-year-old man, mistaking it for his usual medication.
Authorities found Shah had not been able to read the label on the bottle.
After being registered as a nurse, Shah had failed English language tests six times.
In 2013 he was struck off. A reviewer assisting a Health Care Complaints Commission probe found the incident
"defies belief."
And in its finding, the Nursing and Midwifery Tribunal said "he lacks the necessary proficiency in reading and
writing [to be] a registered nurse in whom the general public can repose trust."
BARBARA BEALE: This concerns me because there are many academics there who are trying to do the right
thing. And probably that student had been reported or had, it had been documented somewhere, wha- in the
undergraduate studies. And yet they still graduated. So how did they graduate?
LINTON BESSER: At least two other UWS graduates have also been forced out by hospitals, losing their
registration for poor English and dangerous practices.
UWS says there have been no similar cases since 2011.
But Barbara Beale says there was constant pressure at UWS to pass failing Bachelor of Nursing students.
BARBARA BEALE: I marked a student's work and I gave the student two out of thirty because I thought, "Well, I'll
give them something for trying." And when we went to the cross-marking meeting - this is where a lot of things
happen, at these cross-marking meetings - I said, "I think you need to look at this one." But she handed it to
someone else. So the next person, who was an inexperienced academic, gave that student a pass mark.
LINTON BESSER: Beale objected again and again and says that it was only after the paper passed through the
hands of three reviewers that the fail was upheld.
BARBARA BEALE: I was so upset. That was a very defining day, because if I hadn't really pressed that - if, if it had
been somebody who had less experience or... I don't know, less conviction or something - that student would have
passed.
LINTON BESSER: This person: would they have been safe in a hospital?
BARBARA BEALE: No. No way.
I've just seen what I think is the standard dropping and year after year after year. So Sharon and I talk a lot about
that, don't we?
SHARON HILLEGE, DR., SNR LECTURER (RET'D.), SCHOOL OF NURSING, ACU & UWS: I think it's a sense of
disappointment. It's, and because we really, I think, both of us have loved our nursing careers.
LINTON BESSER: You've published together. I mean...
One of Barbara's long-standing colleagues and friends, Dr Sharon Hillege, shares her concerns about UWS:
concerns which extend not only to international students but also local students of non-English speaking
background.
Hillege says she resisted pressure to pass weaker students but fears that other, more junior academics may have
succumbed.
SHARON HILLEGE: There were some that definitely passed students that I would have believed should not have
passed.
LINTON BESSER: Sharon Hillege stands up for what she believes in. Like Barbara, she too has been a nurse for
more than 40 years.
And seven years ago she was among a group of academics who quit the Australian Catholic University. They were
concerned about falling standards.
SHARON HILLEGE: Ultimately what we've got to do is produce a safe practitioner. And I didn't believe that those
stu- those students would be safe practitioners. So, um, yes. It was morally and ethically abhorrent to me.
LINTON BESSER: Midway through 2008, the NSW Nursing and Midwifery Board raised concerns that ACU
students were not completing the approved curriculum. It was concerned they were unsafe to practice.
LINTON BESSER: It was at that very time that Hillege was delivering a unit on ethics to final-year students. For a
major class assignment, she failed 36 of them for serious plagiarism.
SHARON HILLEGE: I got a phone call or an email from a student, saying that the secretary to my boss had
indicated that she was going to be given half-marks for her assessment task: and would I please change the
results? And, um, I can tell you I was rather annoyed.
LINTON BESSER: Hillege gathered her colleagues and marched to the office of the then head of the nursing
school.
SHARON HILLEGE: I gathered the teaching staff because I think they were all as indignant as I was. And I wanted
to have people witness the fact that we had actually, um, indicated that we were not going to pass those students.
I was initially not given entr, then finally I insisted on having at least five minutes. And yeah, I was clearly instructed
that I was to pass those students and I clearly indicated that I would not be passing those students. And I had the
support of my teaching team.
LINTON BESSER: Four Corners has spoken to former colleagues who corroborate Hillege's account of the
meeting.
Sharon Hillege left the university shortly afterwards. But the majority of students whose papers she had failed for
academic dishonesty were registered just months later as graduate nurses.
SHARON HILLEGE: I think I was more angry about the injustice of it all: that in actual fact this plagiarism would just
be condoned. Um, so here we are. We're trying to produce students that will be ethical, that, um, won't alter
medication charts, will not do all of those things - and yet they could be given half-marks. It was just... I was just
mortified.
LINTON BESSER: Another ACU nursing academic was so disturbed at the situation, she reported it to the then
federal health minister, Nicola Roxon.
"I, as did several others of my colleagues, chose to leave the university where I had tenure, primarily because of
increasing concern about students being admitted into the [Bachelor of Nursing] degree with extraordinarily poor
basic English."
She went on to say they were pressured to "administer 'Clayton's'-type assignments, [to] pass students."
(to Tony Stokes) There have been specific cases where marks have been adjusted after the teacher has given
them in the nursing faculty?
TONY STOKES, DR., SENIOR LECTURER, ECONOMICS, ACU: That was something we... was asked sometimes
to occur. Um, I...
LINTON BESSER: Tell me what happened on those occasions?
TONY STOKES: Well, basically we said, "No. We're not doing it."
LINTON BESSER: Dr Tony Stokes is an ACU senior lecturer in economics who has previously been asked to remark papers in nursing subjects. He concedes there is still pressure today to pass students.
TONY STOKES: I am aware there may be still some areas where people are being called upon to justify the
number of students they're failing.
I had a colleague who was in the business school and he explained to me that he'd been told that he was expected
to fail no more than, more than 10 per cent.
LINTON BESSER: It was not until 2012 that the Australian Catholic University mandated the use of anti-plagiarism
software to assist academics to identify cheats.
SHARON HILLEGE: I was aware that anti-plagiarism software existed. I'm clearly not sure why it hadn't been
implemented in the school where we were working. Certainly it wasn't there at the time.
TONY STOKES: I know, even from my time as head of school, I was saying, "When can we get the plagiarism
software? When can we get the plagiarism software?"
"Oh, we're trying to pick out a good software that will work." Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'd been asking it, for it for
years. Um, people in, in the faculty, ah, had been asking for it. But it was a long process.
LINTON BESSER: But the point is that Turn It In and software platforms like that: they were commonplace at
Australian university campuses in the period at which ACU did not have it?
TONY STOKES: Yes.
LINTON BESSER: The vice-chancellors of both ACU and UWS, Professor Greg Craven and Professor Barney
Glover, also declined interview requests.
In a statement, ACU said it "takes the matter of honesty very seriously: and that it "follows policies to investigate
incidents and students are disciplined appropriately."
Meanwhile, UWS stated it too took academic misconduct seriously and that it "completely rejects the accusation
that the standard of our nursing program is 'falling' and our nursing students are 'weak and unsafe'."
The academics who have spoken out tonight are not alone in their concerns. In our research for this program, we
spoke with scores of academics around Australia. The vast majority had witnessed or personally experienced the
pressure to ignore plagiarism and to pass weak students.
But they were too scared to appear on camera. Many feared it would be the end of their careers.
(to Zena O'Connor) Speaking to Four Corners: what do you think will happen as a result of you speaking out on
this?
ZENA O'CONNOR: I doubt that I'll be employed again next semester.
ROBERT WALDERSEE: We have a number of academics who spoke to us about the pressure they feel to pass
students that they believe should not have passed.
In one case, an academic described where he had failed 50 per cent of the class and under pressure had to
reconsider, and ended up only failing 20 per cent. In another case, an academic had his class re-marked without
him being told - and an increased number of students passed.
LINTON BESSER: Universities have long denied this to be true. One academic who has applied her training to the
question is economist and statistician Dr Gigi Foster.
She spent three years getting access to student performance data from two major universities, neither of which
were her current institution, the University of NSW.
Foster found statistical evidence confirming a trend towards marks being inflated in classes with many international
students.
GIGI FOSTER, DR., ASSOC. PROF., SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS, UNI. OF NSW: If you have a larger fraction of
weaker students in a given course then you would expect at the end of the course that you'd end up with a
distribution of marks which was commensurately lower.
It seems to be that there is an adjustment made in response to a large fraction of international students, um, such
that everybody's marks get buoyed up a little bit.
LINTON BESSER: Her findings lent scientific credibility to the claims of so many academics around the country
that poorly-performing students were still passing.
GIGI FOSTER: So that's essentially the puzzle: is that you would expect the marks to be lower in the courses
where there are larger fractions of demonstrably weaker students - and they don't seem to be lower.
LINTON BESSER: The participating universities were clearly unimpressed with Foster's findings and withdrew their
cooperation.
GIGI FOSTER: So I was hoping to, you know, be able to continue the research. But, ah, the data feeds stopped
after this paper came out.
LINTON BESSER: Why?
GIGI FOSTER: You'd have to ask the universities.
LINTON BESSER: Foster's research focused on international students but many academics have told Four
Corners there are other threats to standards.
At ACU, for example, university entrance levels for domestic students - or ATARs - have plummeted by as many as
20 percentage points.
TONY STOKES: I think, ah, Professor Craven, our, our vice-chancellor, has had the view that we need to grow to
survive in this sort of competitive marketplace. So as a result he did lower the ATARs to let in a lot of, a lot more
students than we had previously.
LINTON BESSER: This has led to dramatic reductions in the difficulty of some courses being taught - although
Tony Stokes doesn't agree.
TONY STOKES: Thirty per cent of our, our students have not completed Year 11 and 12 maths. And some of them
just have blockages in terms of doing maths like division, subtraction and drawing graphs so...
LINTON BESSER: But if you haven't done Year 12 maths, doesn't economics rely on some basic calculus?
TONY STOKES: Um, it doesn't have to. What we tend to do is use computers more to actually solve the same sort
of problems.
LINTON BESSER: ICAC's Robert Waldersee says universities suffer a real conflict of interest between recruitment
on one hand and standards on the other.
ROBERT WALDERSEE: One of them will win out. Too often we believe that it's weighted more towards the
recruitment and revenue and away from the controls on standards.
LINTON BESSER (to Zena O'Connor): In the past you've failed students who've done poorly. And you were going
to talk me through
LINTON BESSER: Ironically, the victims of this conflict are often the students themselves.
ZENA O'CONNOR: If they do in fact fail, um, I'm often inundated with, with emails from them pleading, begging me
to, to pass them.
LINTON BESSER: International students are sometimes in great distress.
ZENA O'CONNOR: "Dear Zena, um, my name is..." Um, "my student number is..." Um, "I don't know why I failed."
Um, "I want to die now." The student then goes on to say, "I want to die now" again. Um, this isn't unusual. I get
quite a lot of emails of this nature."
LINTON BESSER (to Zena O'Connor): It's pretty intense...
LINTON BESSER: Many are desperate to avoid returning home empty-handed.
ZENA O'CONNOR: "I am begging you, begging you to re-check my final mark. I will do anything that you say."
LINTON BESSER: I mean, i- is that an invitation to some kind of bribery or something?
ZENA O'CONNOR: I would hate to think what that is all about.
ROBERT WALDERSEE: These sort of emails are a symptom of the pr- problems that are created by the tension
between capabilities that fall short of the demands of the university. And it puts students in increasingly desperate
situations. For some students there really are few other options to, to try and pass. They may offer bribes to the
academics. The academics may exploit the students. But that is what we mean by it being conducive to corruption.
LINTON BESSER: In 2009, Western Australia's Corruption and Crime Commission held public hearings into Nasrul
Ali, a Curtin University finance lecturer.
TRANSCRIPTION OF AUDIO RECORDING OF NASRUL ALI (voiceover): I think it would make life a lot easier if I
gave you a pass?
LINTON BESSER: The academic had been targeting international female students, one of whom secretly recorded
him.
TRANSCRIPTION OF AUDIO RECORDING OF NASRUL ALI (voiceover): It's more about making it worth me
changing your mark. You need to offer me a non-academic.
LINTON BESSER: The CCC found he was attempting to solicit sexual favours in return for higher grades.
ROBERT WALDERSEE: So you will see cheating. You will see students who are increasingly desperate. Where
students are increasingly desperate, academics will or might take advantage of them.
VOICEOVER (expertassignmenthelp.com advertisement): Getting experts to help your school assignments was
never this easy and affordable.
LINTON BESSER: There are plenty of other underground transactions thriving in universities...
TESTIMONIAL (expertassignmenthelp.com advertisement): When a friend asked me, "How I ace all courses with
minimum effort?", I simply recommend them.
LINTON BESSER: ...including a lively trade in essays.
To test how easy it is, Zena O'Connor gave us permission to try to sell one of her old essays online.
(to Zena O'Connor) Thirty-five dollars?
ZENA O'CONNOR: Thirty-five dollars.
LINTON BESSER: That's all, I'm afraid.
ZENA O'CONNOR (laughs): Two, two salad sandwiches and a couple of coffees.
(Linton laughs)
LINTON BESSER: Four Corners also tried to buy an essay.
GUEST ACCOUNT, ASSIGNMENTHELP.NET (voiceover): Hi, can I buy essay by cash?
PETER, ASSIGNMENTHELP.NET (voiceover): We accept PayPal.
LINTON BESSER: We chose a website offering essays to students in Australia, the UK and the US,
AssignmentHelp.net.
We asked if they could guarantee the essay would not be detected by the anti-plagiarism software used by
universities, called Turn It In.
GUEST ACCOUNT, ASSIGNMENTHELP.NET (voiceover): Can you make sure it's OK with Turn It In? I don't want
to get caught.
PETER, ASSIGNMENTHELP.NET (voiceover): Yes... price $100.
You can pay in cash but for that you need to visit our office. You can give payment to Jimmy.
LINTON BESSER: "Peter" sent us to see "Jimmy" at this ordinary suburban home in Werrington Downs in the
western suburbs of Sydney.
(to Jeffrey) G'day. Here to see Jimmy about, ah, buying an essay.
JEFFREY: Nah. No-one here by that name.
LINTON BESSER: Really?
It wasn't Jimmy, but a man named Jeffrey. He said he knew nothing about the essay business. But at the same
time, he wasn't surprised to see me.
JEFFREY: I used to run a mail-forwarding business.
LINTON BESSER: Oh, yeah.
JEFFREY: But that finished...
LINTON BESSER: This mail redirection service has had clients with a colourful history.
A decade ago, the house was listed as the address for 'Chancery International University', a bogus institute selling
fake degrees.
We looked up the address and it's been associated with all kinds of scams, like dip, like, um, diploma mills 10 years
ago and, um, you know, other weird online businesses.
JEFFREY: One- one of the reasons I got out of the business is because we had the Commonwealth Police arrive
here at 7 o'clock one morning along with Customs. Someone had tried to forward, um, human growth hormones
through us
LINTON BESSER: Wow.
These kind of transactions don't surprise Barmak Nassirian. The US has been grappling with corruption of
university admissions head-on.
BARMAK NASSIRIAN: We have had instances of major public institutions naely entering the international
recruitment business and, ah, accepting students from China who submitted, ah, transcripts but that later on
proved to have been significantly altered and inaccurate. And that institution took those students in and graduated
them.
LINTON BESSER: Just last month, armed Homeland Security officers raided this university in California, arresting
three staff on suspicion of trading visas and enrolments for cash.
No-one wants to see these scenes on Australian campuses, but administrators can't turn off the tap on
international students.
They see no alternative to refill their coffers.
ROBERT WALDERSEE: It's become relatively clear that for any one university to raise its standards of either
English proficiency or other credentials or capabilities, alone, would only hurt that university. There is little gain for
one university to step out of the pack.
LINTON BESSER: Universities are now stuck in an arms race. Students and standards are merely collateral
damage.
BARMAK NASSIRIAN: At the end of the day, Australian universities are governed by Australians. And they really
need to make a decision whether they're willing to undermine the credibility - international credibility - of credentials
they manufacture in the name of more business.
ZENA O'CONNOR: Education is not an industry. And this is the mistake that the universities are making. Education
is not an industry.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Of course, these same academics, these same universities, these same courses are processing
Australian students as well. Are they somehow untouched by the kinds of activities and concerns revealed tonight?
Given what's at stake, it's unfortunate the vice-chancellors of the three universities featured in our story - Sydney,
Western Sydney and the Australian Catholic University - couldn't front up in person and face the obvious questions.
Their unedited statements can be found on our website. And responses from the universities who use Shinyway
Agency and EduGlobal Agency in Beijing are also on the website.
Next week: an extraordinary inside look at the Kurdish militia's fight against ISIS.
Until then, good night.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/educations-double-bind/story-e6frg6z6-1227310912666
Education’s double bind
THE AUSTRALIAN
APRIL 20, 2015 12:00AM
It’s one of Australia’s best-kept secrets — an export sector that delivered $16.6 billion in
economic gains in 2014. Fourth only to iron ore, coal and natural gas, international education is
the very model of a modern knowledge economy industry.
Having fashioned a new sector from the fragments of a 1950s aid program called the Colombo Plan,
Australia invented mass international education in the 1980s.
This year 600,000 international students will be educated in our universities, colleges and schools and
many tens of thousands more by our educators in their own countries. That supports about 130,000 jobs
nationally and many more indirectly.
But over many years, beneath the ballooning revenues and political braggadocio, there has festered a
less salubrious side: one of overcrowded classrooms, questionable academic standards, cheating,
rorting and, according to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, perhaps even bribery
and corruption.
“Between 1988 and 2014, the number of fee-paying international students at universities in NSW
increased 13-fold and, today, represent nearly one in five of those studying at universities in this state,”
the ICAC report says.
“False entry standards, cheating on English-language proficiency tests, essay mills selling assignments,
plagiarism, cheating in university exams and paying others to sit exams are reportedly common.”
Ask anyone who has studied or taught on a city-based university campus in Sydney, Melbourne or
Brisbane and they’ll tell you what the real story is. Lectures and tutorials filled to bursting with overseas
students, particularly in business and accounting courses. They’ll tell you of classes in which 80 per cent
of the students are Mandarin speakers. They’ll tell you of students who can barely speak, never mind
write or read, English.
It’s a double bind. With international students contributing 17 per cent of university revenues, they are a
much-needed source of -income.
“Students may be struggling to pass but universities cannot afford to fail them,” ICAC bluntly puts it.
“There is a widespread public perception that academic standards are lowered to accommodate a cohort
of students who struggle to pass.” Inevitably, that leads to cheating, says ICAC.
Of course, that sort of behaviour is not confined to NSW or to universities, or to international students.
Domestic students are also known to cheat and increasing numbers get into university with substandard
academic abilities.
The link between education and permanent residency was established in the 2000s when the Howard
government guaranteed permanent residency for foreign students with an Australian degree. The
scheme took off like wild fire, as institutions such as Central Queensland University set up high-rise citybased campuses designed to ride the wave of students eager for easy residency status. But, as Monash
University researcher Bob Birrell discovered, it didn’t take long before hundreds of thousands of students,
mainly from India, Nepal and China, soon realised they could do a much cheaper and quicker vocational
certificate in cookery or hairdressing and still win the prize — the right to legally stay in Australia.
In 2009, there were 632,000 international students here, of whom 232,475 were enrolled in mainly
private, many dodgy, vocational colleges, an increase of 37 per cent from 2008.
Yet the halcyon days of easy visas came crashing to a halt in 2009 when a perfect storm hit the booming
sector: the high dollar made an Australian education expensive; increased competition came from Britain,
Canada, Singapore and the US; a spate of violent attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney
garnered widespread negative international press and earned Australia the label of “racist”; and dodgy
colleges started crashing — taking their students’ dreams of residency, if not an education, with them.
Following a review by Michael Knight, the former NSW Olympics minister, new tougher visa rules meant
that trusted providers — the country’s 40 universities and a handful of private colleges — were given
streamlined visa-processing (SVP) status allowing them to more easily attract and enrol students.
The new rules also put the onus of responsibility for enrolling genuine students on the institution, not the
immigration department, with the threat of expulsion from the SVP system if they are found to have
enrolled too many non-genuine students.
The system appears to be working. Immigration department figures show 7061 student visas were
cancelled in 2014, up from just 1978 cancellations in 2012.
The issue with who is, and who isn’t, a genuine student starts at the beginning of the student recruitment
process. Universities employ dozens of agents across many countries and this, ICAC, says, is where the
rot sets in.
Agents get paid a commission of up to 20 per cent of first-year tuition fees for every student they recruit,
says Dean Forbes, a former head of international education at Flinders University. Forbes is working on
a project on corruption in education in southeast Asia with a group of researchers from Oxford University.
With annual tuition fees for a business degree ranging from $18,560 at small regional institutions such
as Southern Cross University, to $35,000 at Melbourne University, the incentives for engaging in fraud
and deception are high.
“Some universities in NSW use up to 300 agents and this was never going to be manageable. Document
fraud and cheating in corrupt markets (is) well known,” ICAC says.
“Without exception, all universities contacted by the Commission had experienced instances of agents
submitting false documentation, assisting students to corruptly pass admission processing or attempting
to bribe staff to approve certain student applications.”
It goes on: “In (one) university, the incentive for sales staff was to enrol as many students as the
university could accommodate, knowing that once the students were enrolled, any weaknesses in their
language or academic abilities would be dealt with by the faculty rather than the international student
office. Indeed, there was no disincentive to international student office sales staff to accept borderline or
underqualified students.”
The federal education department is understood to be drafting a national code for best practice for the
use of education agents and consultants.
It will suggest, among other things, that universities demand the termination of corrupt agents, develop
an industry-led quality assurance scheme and provide information on which agents recruit academically
successful students, and which don’t.
At the same time, a long overdue draft strategy for the international education sector was finally released
by Education Minister Christopher Pyne earlier this month, following a review in 2011 by businessman
Michael Chaney.
While the draft obliquely refers to the importance of a quality system in attracting good students, it does
not reference any of the issues raised in the ICAC report or an earlier 2011 Victorian ombudsman’s
report that arrived at similar findings.
And with the government harbouring grand ambitions for the sector, these issues are going to have to be
faced head on. Trade Minister Andrew Robb has suggested the sector could grow to 10 million students
by 2022, largely through online delivery, as the expanding middle classes of Asia seek to cement their
economic privilege.
The question of how that could be achieved without even more compromise to the integrity of the system
is not addressed in the draft strategy. Submissions to it close on May 29.
But back to ICAC, which is explicit in making a correlation between universities’ increasing financial
reliance on international students — after successive federal governments cut back per-student funding
— and their enthusiasm for turning a blind eye to questionable practices.
Indeed, research conducted at Melbourne University in 2011 found that every international student
cross-subsidises a domestic one to the tune of $1200 a year. The study also found international students
paid an average of $5000 more than the estimated average cost of teaching their course, with some
paying up to $10,000 more, depending on the course and institution.
As successive governments have focused on increasing domestic participation — the proportion of
people aged 35 and under with a degree is hovering about the 40 per cent mark — per-student funding
has been static or in decline, driving universities to seek alternative revenue streams. Total government
contributions to big research-intensive universities are now down to about 20 per cent of revenues. The
sector average is about 40 per cent.
One in every five students enrolled in an Australian university is from overseas, a figure that is as high
as one in three in some universities and much higher in business faculties, where international students
gravitate. Yet national data shows international students pass at a higher rate than their domestic
colleagues.
“Staff within universities in NSW find ways to pass students in order to preserve budgets,” the ICAC
report says.
The only robust survey of international students’ academic performance was conducted by University of
NSW economist Gigi Foster in 2010.
Studying the enrolment and academic pass rates of 12,846 students in the business faculties of two
universities, Foster found international students from non-English-speaking backgrounds underperform
domestic students as a result of language and cultural barriers — as one would expect.
But she also found underperformance is less pronounced when there are proportionately more
international students in the class. Stunningly, she also found that classes composed almost entirely of
international students would on average be 6.5 points higher than those courses comprising solely
domestic students.
The resulting furore — with universities shamelessly in denial and ferociously attacking Foster — have
ensured it is unlikely any full and objective analyses of academic performance will be repeated, a
situation that does not sit well with the outspoken Foster.
“Universities don’t want to know the truth,” she says, adding that sensitivities over the potential to appear
xenophobic and political correctness also prevent the sector from confronting the issues.
Foster agrees with ICAC’s assessment that student recruitment practices through offshore agents go to
the heart of the matter.
“There’s an assumption that we need to rely on intermediaries to recruit students,” she says.
“But if you look at the very best universities overseas, such as Harvard or Yale, the admissions
processes are the same for all students whether they are international or domestic and that process is
much more detailed and nuanced.”
However, Phil Honeywood, executive director of the International Education Association of Australia,
says we need to keep a sense of perspective. With nearly 600,000 international students here in any
one year — and more than 250,000 of them in universities — there are always going to be cases of
people not doing the right thing.
Honeywood contends cheating and rorting are not as widespread as ICAC suggests, adding that the
report is big on anecdote but short on evidence. He also states the case that such behaviours are not
isolated to overseas students.
Forbes agrees, adding that even locals often perform poorly on language and numeracy tests, pointing
to a recent push for literacy and numeracy tests to be conducted on graduating education students
before they enter the country’s classrooms as teachers.
Besides, says Honeywood, we can’t have it both ways.
“We are happy for overseas students to pay two to three times what our own students pay in tuition fees
for the same degrees and, in effect, cross-subsidise our children’s educations,” he says.
“We are also content to watch as many of these overseas students do the “dirty” part-time jobs that few
of our Australian-born young people would ever stomach doing themselves nowadays.
“Then we want to vilify them for filling up our universities, for lowering our academic standards, for taking
our jobs and, even, for pushing up house prices.”
https://www.studyinternational.com/news/corruption-and-malpractice-in-australias-internationalstudent-industry
Corruption and malpractice in Australia’s international student industry
An ABC documentary has exposed what it calls "systemic abuse of the system".
By SI News, Apr 21st, 2015
Reposted from Asian Correspondent
Australian universities have come under increased pressure this week to review international student recruitment
practices after a damning ABC documentary exposed what it described as “systemic abuse of the system”.
‘Degrees of Deception’, which aired in Australia Monday night, came on the back of areport released by the
Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) last week which urged New South Wales (NSW) universities
to take the necessary steps to ensure they do not sacrifice academic standards in the cut-throat business of
recruiting international students.
“In the search for international students, some universities in NSW are entering markets where document fraud and
cheating on English-language proficiency tests are known to exist. Some universities are using up to 300 local
intermediaries or agents to market to and recruit students, resulting in due diligence and control challenges,” said
the ICAC.
At the heart of the issue are the massive revenues to be gained by Australian universities from recruiting
international students. The number of fee-paying international students in NSW is 13 times higher today than it was
in 1988, while international education is Australia’s 4th largest export, netting the economy AUS$16.6 billion
(US$12.8 billion) in 2014.
Fees paid by international students are a key source of revenue for most Australian universities, with 17 percent of
total revenues coming from overseas students.
According to Study in Australia, the official government website for international students, yearly fees for
undergraduate bachelor’s degrees for international students range from AUS$15,000 (US$11,540) to AUS$33,000
(US$25,395); a postgraduate master’s degree ranges from AUS$20,000 to AUS$37,000; and a doctoral degree
from AU$S14,000 to AUS$37,000.
Competition among Australian universities and an increasingly competitive global education market has led to
many higher education institutes lowering their verification and academic standards to attract more students from
overseas. The ICAC said that universities are using corrupt agents in countries “where document fraud and
cheating on English-language proficiency tests are known to exist”. It added that many universities are aware of,
and even participate in, malpractice.
“Students may be struggling to pass, but universities cannot afford to fail them,” the report said.
It added: “The gap between student capabilities and academic demands increases the likelihood that students will
offer inducements to academics in order to pass courses and, conversely, makes students more vulnerable to
improper demands from academics. With universities in NSW financially dependent on the success of international
students, academics may be encouraged to admit students they would otherwise reject, to turn a blind eye to
cheating and to mark the work of poor-performing students favourably to enable them to pass.”
‘Degrees of Deception’
ABC’s documentary, ‘Degrees of Deception’, spoke to academics who said universities in Australia were turning a
blind eye to plagiarism.
“We’ve got to pass the vast majority of our students no matter what their level is, no matter what their prior
knowledge is, no matter how much or how little effort they put in,” Paul Fritters, a University of Queensland
professor, told the program.
Rena O’ Connor, of the University of Sydney’s architecture, design and planning faculty, said some international
students’ level of English was so low that “their emails and essays were almost impossible to decipher”.
Reporters also went undercover in China – Australian universities’ biggest overseas market – where it found one
agent willing to accept falsified English-language test documents from prospective students, a situation that leads
to “poor English speakers… graduating as nurses from Australian universities dangerously under qualified”.
Barbara Beale, former lecturer at the University of Western Sydney’s School of Nursing, said there was constant
pressure at the university to pass failing nursing students and that standards are dropping “year after year”.
“They [graduates] might find themselves being the only registered nurse on duty. And that is something that
frightens me,” she said.
In a response to the documentary, dated April 16, the University of Western Sydney rejected ABC’s claims: “UWS
completely rejects the accusation that the standard of our nursing program is ‘falling’ and our nursing students are
‘weak and unsafe’. The University also strongly refutes any claim of ‘soft marking’. The University has rigorous
standards and criteria for marking assignments to ensure consistency across all markers.”
It added: “The University rejects any assertion that its entry requirements are set, or relaxed, for the University’s
financial gain.”
While admitting that there are “no simple solutions” for universities looking to maintain revenues from
international students while maintaining rigorous academic standards, the ICAC outlined 12 initiatives universities
could undertake to tackle the problem. These include limiting relationships with overseas agents and separating
compliance from business development.
Some Australian universities are already exploring the rapidly changing student recruitment landscape to find ways
of cutting out foreign agents while attracting fully vetted international students who will not struggle with the
academic demands of studying in Australia.
With clients including Bond University and University of Newcastle, Study International eliminates the need for
overseas agents by connecting universities with international students who meet the academic, visa and financial
requirements to enroll in Australia’s top universities.
“We believe in digital marketing as opposed to using estranged third party agents to find students. A lot of
universities come to us because they are tired of working with local agents who don’t always live up to their quality
and compliance standards,” said managing director James Craven.
“Going forward it’s critical that all universities do more to run their international marketing independently as
oppose to using third party agents. That’s the path to long term, sustainable international recruitment for Australian
institutions.”
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/university-of-queensland-hits-back-at-fourcorners-university-corruption-investigation-20150421-1mpq42.html
University of Queensland hits back at Four Corners university corruption
investigation
Jorge Branco, Brisbane Times April 21, 2015
The head of Queensland's largest university has responded to reports corruption is rife in Australia's
international student sector, saying it doesn't happen at his school.
University of Queensland vice-chancellor Peter Høj says a Four Corners report alleging major
universities engaged corrupt education agents who were falsifying the academic records of prospective
international students to ensure acceptance into Australian universities "certainly doesn't relate to UQ".
The program exposed soft-marking, mass-cheating and the bribery of academics as a commonplace
occurrence in Australia's higher education sector.
It reinforced concerns Australia's booming international student market was contributing to a decline in
academic standards through the routine acceptance of students with sub-par English.
The ABC found a number of Chinese education agents who represented the University of Queensland
and leading universities in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra were willing to accept forged academic
transcripts, with the network of collusion extending into the universities' internal processes.
The investigation found many students were arriving at Australian universities with scores of 4.5 on the
International English Language Testing System - an international standardised test of English language
proficiency - well below the test's recommended minimum score of 7 for university entry.
Speaking to 612 ABC Brisbane, Professor Høj said UQ's 11,500 international students made up almost
a quarter of its cohort and brought in more than $300 million a year.
He admitted the university used "some of those agencies" but said it double-checked credentials with the
China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Development Centre based in the Chinese education
ministry.
"We're very confident that students who want to get into Australian universities and who try to forge their
way into it they certainly don't turn up at UQ," he said, adding dealing with the agents was necessary to
be competitive in the international market.
The vice-chancellor also rejected comments made by University of Sydney sessional lecturer Zena
O'Connor that there was a "culture of leniency" towards international students in the tertiary system.
UQ academic Professor Paul Frijters, who is embroiled in a bitter fight with the university over his
treatment after releasing controversial research, told Four Corners of his concerns
"We've got to pass the vast majority of our students no matter what their level is, no matter what their
prior knowledge is, no matter how much or how little effort they put in," the economist said.
But Professor Høj said none of the university's senior academics involved in quality control "recognised
the claims as true".
"Professor Frijters would have to obviously have observed such behaviour to be able to make those
public comments and I would have liked to think that he had actually made that known to the university's
academic board," he said.
Professor Høj said there was an "enormous amount of wonderful international students" and it was
important not to tar them all with the same brush.
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2015-04-20/underperforming-nursing-studentscould-endanger-public-safety-say-university-academics/1438896
Underperforming nursing students 'could endanger public safety', say university
academics
Updated 20 April 2015, 23:30 AEST
Radio Australia. By Linton Besser, Peter Cronau and Hagar Cohen
Academics from two of the country's largest nursing faculties say underperforming students are being
undeservedly awarded nursing degrees, potentially endangering public safety.
Academics from two of the country's largest nursing faculties, the University of Western Sydney (UWS)
and the Australian Catholic University (ACU), say weak students are being undeservedly awarded
nursing degrees, potentially endangering public safety.
A Four Corners investigation has identified significant pressure at Australian universities to pass weak
and underperforming students, many of whom are full-fee-paying internationals.
It also found some university administrators have turned a blind eye to rampant academic misconduct.
One senior academic who has taught at both UWS and ACU, said both universities were relaxing
standards and ignoring plagiarism.
"There are students that are falling through the cracks, and yes, they could end up being unsafe
practitioners," she said.
"There are a group of students who I honestly believe ... should not be graduating."
A former senior figure at UWS nursing said the situation had become so dire it required industrial action.
"I believe that it's the profession that has to stand up, they have to rise up and they have to tell the
registering accrediting bodies, 'stop what you are doing and increase the entry level' ... for entry into the
bachelor of nursing," she said.
"I don't think the universities will do it because they've got a vested interest because of funding.
"So who's left? Individuals can't do it. The profession of nursing needs to do it.
"They need to stand up, they need to rise and say 'stop what you are doing'."
In a statement, UWS strenuously denied soft-marking was a problem: "UWS completely rejects the
accusation that the standard of our nursing program is 'falling' and our nursing students are 'weak and
unsafe'."
ACU said it had strict policies to manage academic misconduct.
Asked about ongoing concerns in the health sciences faculty about the pressure to pass students, a
spokeswoman said: "No staff member has the right to direct staff to change grades."
"There is a process to ensure every course and every unit is reviewed and assessed by formally
constituted Faculty and School committees."
The vice-chancellors of both universities declined requests for an interview with Four Corners.
Do you know more? Email besser.linton@abc.net.au
Gap between 'capabilities of students and academic demands'
A major report by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption last week, Learning the Hard
Way, reported widespread problems with soft-marking across the university sector and significant risks
of corruption within institutions.
"There is a gap - at least in some courses - between the capabilities of many students and academic
demands," the report said.
"Students may be struggling to pass, but universities cannot afford to fail them.
"There is pressure for some international students to pass courses that are beyond their academic
capabilities, pressure on staff within universities in NSW to find ways to pass students in order to
preserve budgets.
"When it involves sufficient numbers, the tension created by the student capability gap and the need to
meet revenue targets becomes more conducive to corruption.
"Academics come under pressure to turn a blind-eye to problems caused by poor academic capabilities
and actively play a part in allowing students to pass who should fail."
Four Corners also broadcasted evidence of collusion involving some offshore agents used by
universities to recruit hundreds of thousands of students, primarily from China and India.
On Friday, the ABC revealed an estimated $250 million in public funds was being paid in commissions
each year by universities to these agents, in full knowledge that many are corrupt and dealt in fraudulent
documents.
More often, these commissions are undisclosed to the public, and the students shepherded by agents to
particular institutions.
Academics from across the country told the program there had been many positive aspects to the
increased number of international students on campuses.
But they lamented the detrimental impact on academic rigour caused by having so many students with
inadequate English language skills.
'If you fail a first-year international student ... that's a loss of income'
Alex Barthel, a language consultant to universities and former director of the English language centre at
the University of Technology Sydney, said language thresholds across the country were too low, putting
untoward pressure on academics.
He said the pressure was being eased by ensuring most students passed and received their degree.
"There is increasingly soft-marking across the board," he said.
"If you fail a first-year international student, he or she doesn't go into second year, that's a loss of
income.
"Sorry, I know that sounds crude, but that's the reality.
"At a number of universities [there are] students passing courses, and [graduating] with a language
proficiency that's below that required in some cases ... to enter the university."
While most of the core academic pursuits such as medicine and law have been largely untouched by
these problems, many said standards had fallen in other faculties as accommodations were made for
low levels of English proficiency.
University of Queensland economist Professor Paul Frijters said financial imperatives had driven
decisions by universities to lower entry requirements.
"This leads to problems down the line for academics who then have to grade the essays of these
individuals," he said.
"They find themselves more often than not being English language checkers rather than checking the
disciplinary knowledge as they're supposed to."
The vast majority of academics who spoke to Four Corners wished to protect their identity because they
feared recriminations if they spoke publicly.
Some had been required to sign non-disclosure agreements with their universities.
Academics paid 'to deliver a grade distribution, not an education'
One former ACU economist, Professor Paul Oslington, previously launched a blistering attack on the
university.
In articles published in Quadrant, he wrote that at ACU: "Students will be herded into large lecture
theatres and shown PowerPoint slides provided by a textbook publisher."
"Word spread pretty fast that study is optional, given the policy that no more than 10 per cent of students
can fail a unit."
The ACU spokeswoman said: "ACU does not have a quota for passing or failing students."
In another article, Professor Oslington said academics were being paid "to deliver a grade distribution,
not an education."
"The culture has become so corrupt that a new sessional who refused to divulge the examination paper
was abused and threatened by students, and presumably punished in his teaching evaluations," he
wrote.
"Another who objected in a meeting to giving a credit to marketing students with a grade of 23 per cent
soon had the Dean in his room pointing out the implications of such behaviour for his chances of
contract renewal."
Staff forced to 'dumb-down degrees'
Academics also reported a deterioration in the difficulty of course materials in some areas.
There are also a rising number of opportunities for students to either resubmit essays or sit what are
sometimes called "supplementary exams".
"There's also been pressures on the academics ... to make the courses simple enough so that the vast
majority get through in a reasonably quick space of time," Professor Frijters said.
"Hence you've effectively got to dumb down the degree. Now that's happened definitely in the last couple
of decades."
Academics are confronted by a rising tide of student appeals for higher marks.
As an increasing portion of them are part-time casual teachers, working through a series of 12-week,
single-semester contracts, there is a reluctance to fail students as teachers said the work required to
manage appeals was effectively unpaid.
Plagiarism poses a similar problem.
The prosecution of students on charges of academic misconduct under university policies is so complex
and time-consuming that many lecturers and tutors instead turn a blind eye to the problem.
Professor Frijters said he also had concerns that exam questions were being leaked to ensure students
passed subjects and provide lecturers with the positive course feedback now essential to a renewed
teaching contract.
"I believe in general that soft-marking is an important feature of our business now," he said.
https://theconversation.com/australian-unis-should-take-responsibility-for-corrupt-practices-ininternational-education-40380
THE CONVERSATION
Australian unis should take responsibility for corrupt practices in international education
20 April 2015, 9.21pm AEST
Tracey Bretag
Senior Lecturer, School of Management at University of South Australia
The higher education sector has become increasingly reliant on income from fee-paying international
students since Australian universities first entered foreign markets in 1986, a new report from the NSW
Independent Commission Against Corruption says.
From 1988-2014, the number of international students at Australian universities increased 13-fold.
These students now comprise 18% of the student population in NSW universities, and often exceed
25%.
In many business schools, this percentage is substantially higher. The need to generate revenue has
often conflicted with the obligation to ensure academic quality and integrity. However, to date, the
“blame” for declining standards has tended to rest with international students themselves rather than
educational institutions or the sector more broadly.
The range of corruption issues that has emerged suggests standards have indeed been
compromised. These include: falsification of entry documents, cheating in English language proficiency
tests, online contract cheat sites selling assignments or providing the means for so-called “file sharing”,
widespread plagiarism, and cheating and fraud in examinations.
It is widely known by all stakeholders in the sector that a significant number of international students
for whom English is an additional language struggle to meet the linguistic and academic demands of
their courses.
It is also widely known that international students are burdened with additional pressures relating to
culture, finance, family and peer groups.
While cheating is certainly not limited to international students, they are particularly vulnerable to the
brazen marketing tactics of a burgeoning cheating industry which has the capacity to infiltrate social
media, university email systems and message boards. This occurs both on campus and online.
International students are easy targets for unscrupulous businesses advertising “assistance” with
assignments and exams. They are striving to make sense of the new academic environment and often
have inadequate English or poor educational preparation. They may also have entered the system
with false credentials, or may have come from cultures more accepting of practices that we would regard
as corrupt.
The media have been at the forefront in exposing cheating and plagiarism scandals by international
students. The recent MyMaster investigation revealed the widespread use of cheat sites. In this case,
Chinese students could purchase ready-made essays on a given topic.
The resulting public outcry has, at times, been little more than thinly veiled racism. International students
have been blamed for declining academic standards, while the higher education sector has not been
held to account.
The recently released ICAC NSW report has turned its attention to the role of universities in enabling
and facilitating corrupt practices.
The report suggests that Australian universities were not well prepared to enter the international student
market. This lack of preparation had long-reaching and most often negative consequences.
The report says competition for international students has led universities to:

aggressively market for international students without considering the associated costs and risks

set inappropriately low English language requirements

rely on largely unregulated agents with inducements to submit applications from insufficiently
qualified students or, worse, to submit fraudulent applications

establish offshore partnerships without the necessary due diligence

set recruitment KPIs, reinforced by financial incentives, with no accountability for quality or resulting
pressures on academic workloads

leave the burden of maintaining standards with teaching academics, while simultaneously pressuring
them to pass work of insufficient quality and turn a blind eye to misconduct.
ABC TV’s Four Corners expose, “Degrees of Deception”, validated every one of ICAC’s conclusions.
The program gave voice to the desperation of many academics. Their life work of teaching has been
undermined by an environment that has little to do with education and more to do with revenue raising.
Tales of being forced to change grades, ignore incomprehensible English, pass plagiarised assignments
and manage their own and students' rising stress levels characterised the interviews.
It is apparent that corruption has seeped into every aspect of the higher education sector, from
admissions all the way through to graduation. The information shared on Four Corners will no doubt
come as a shock to the average family. For those of us in higher education, this isn’t news.
Rather than become despondent and accept the status quo, positive moves are afoot. ICAC has
provided a list of “12 corruption prevention initiatives” to counter problems that have been
created by a university’s reliance on revenues from international students who struggle to meet the
academic standards of the university that recruited them.
These revolve around relationships with partners and agents, marketing and financial strategies, risk,
due diligence, accountability of international offices, governance strategies and admissions.
While no specific “initiative” was provided in relation to setting minimum English language requirements,
this issue underpinned the whole report. It notes that:
of all the reasons cited to the Commission, low English-language proficiency was the most common
basis given for international students engaging in academic misconduct.
It is evident that universities ignore this fact at their peril.
Thirty years after entering foreign markets, the Australian higher education sector is beginning to
recognise that a short-sighted and ill-planned grab for revenue has had long-reaching and potentially
disastrous effects on academic standards, integrity and reputation.
ICAC has provided a number of useful recommendations. These make clear the responsibility of
universities, not students, for rectifying these issues
https://theconversation.com/university-balance-sheets-tell-us-only-some-are-right-to-cry-poor37093
THE CONVERSATION
Australian unis should take responsibility for corrupt practices in international education
21 April 2015, 6.13am AEST
John Rice
With all but one exception, the vice-chancellors of Australia’s universities came out in support of fee
deregulation, or removing the government’s caps on university fees, because they said current funding
was unsustainable.
So with the release of some universities' annual reports over the last few weeks we’re able to see how
the universities are really faring. Vice-chancellors have already come out telling us not to be fooled by
surpluses on the balance sheet, so is the financial situation really as dire as they say, as rosy as
their detractors say, or somewhere in between?
Australia’s universities – where are we at?
In February, the University of South Australia’s David Lloyd bemoaned the policy and funding
chaos he has found since moving to Australia from Ireland. However the University of Canberra’s
Stephen Parker sees the funding system as pretty good.
An opportunity is emerging to better reflect on the state of Australia’s universities, as they release their
(calendar year) annual reports. They have been coming in dribs and drabs, dictated by an anomaly that
requires their tabling in state parliaments on various dates. Some interesting patterns are emerging.
First was Western Australia – whose mixed bag of results set the trend that has been repeated in
Queensland and Victoria. In Western Australia, Murdoch’s organisational woes coincided with a steep
decline in its financial fortunes.
Digging a little deeper, Murdoch’s results were primarily driven by higher costs, static revenues and
lower investment returns.
Later came Queensland and Victoria. Griffith, focused on two main campuses that span the south-east
corner of Queensland, provides an insight into the emerging pressure the sector is confronting.
Its Commonwealth Grant payments (essentially that part of the revenue stream contributed by the
Commonwealth to pay for undergraduate education) increased from A$498 million to A$519 million
between 2013 and 2014, while employee and other expenses increased from A$728 million to A$753
million during the same period.
All universities make up the difference primarily from student fees – much of which comes from
international students and domestic postgraduates – the majority of whom study in the increasingly
contested business, commerce and economics fields.
In many ways, Murdoch and Griffith are exemplars in a sector under strain. During the last few years, the
sector’s primary union, the National Tertiary Education Union, has had much success in “pattern
bargaining” – achieving similar income increases across various universities, while also seeing pathways
established for academic casuals into more secure “teaching focused” roles.
Both of these successes come with financial costs, and there was little concomitant increase in revenue
for many universities in 2014. At Murdoch, student numbers were down, while costs were up in line with
inflation and awarded salary increases.
Investment returns in 2014 (important as universities hold financial assets to offset long term employee
liabilities like long service leave) were down, both as ASX returns reduced from 2013 and also as
interest rates halved. In organisations running on very tight margins, the impact on notional returns has
been acute.
Winners and losers?
Australia’s universities are often considered somewhat tribal groups – the Australian Technology
Network (or ATN - technology universities like UTS and RMIT), the Group of Eight (Australia’s most
prestigious universities including the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne) and the regionals, for
example. Is there evidence that any are riding out the current uncertainty better than others?
What is clear from the above table is that generalisations are hard to make, and no one grouping of
universities seems to doing better than any other.
It is clear that those most impacted by the problems in Victoria’s vocational education and training
system, dual sector institutions Victoria University and Swinburne, are struggling.
Monash is doing well – but much of its surplus is driven by one-off investment gains. Their annual
report stated:
While $52 million of this [operating result] was due to the restructure of our investment portfolio and had
no cash impact, the remainder still speaks to university-wide effort and wise financial management.
Curiously, some of the lower ranked universities (in terms of global rankings) are doing the best
financially. Toowoomba’s USQ, for example, was the most profitable university among those reporting. It
has seen good student growth, with limited increases in staffing costs.
It will be important to monitor if such financial success comes at a longer term cost to research
performance and community engagement.
While it’s not really justified for all vice-chancellors to be crying poor, there are certainly some
universities operating at losses, and many with very slim profit margins relying heavily on unpredictable
investment returns.
Whether or not universities should be allowed to set their own fees and charge students what they like is
a question for another person, another day; but it does appear that some of our institutions of higher
learning need a more stable funding arrangement than what they have currently - one which relies
heavily on international students enrolments and uncertain future funding arrangements.
The competitive environment that the government seeks comes with serious duplication and waste.
Universities are spending vast sums competing for students and spending large amounts of much
needed cash on marketing and advertising.
The system as a whole would perform far better if these resources were directed to teaching, research
and community engagement. Surely that is what we want of our universities.
https://theconversation.com/the-slide-of-academic-standards-in-australia-a-cautionary-tale40464
THE CONVERSATION
The slide of academic standards in Australia: a cautionary tale
21 April 2015, 11.19am AEST
Gigi Foster
The recent furore about academic standards in Australian higher education – including Monday night’s
damning Four Corners expose – has the potential to bring not only desperately needed attention, but
actual change, to the sector.
The uninitiated observer of this frenzy may struggle to gain a balanced understanding of what has gone
wrong, and how much more wrong it has gone in Australia than in other countries.
Let’s take a good look through the lens of an economist at where academic standards come from and
how they are nurtured, so as to have a hope of crafting an Australian policy remedy.
Lesson 1: incentives matter
Any economist recognises these as the most important two words that our discipline offers. In the case
of what is taught in higher education, the “cui bono?” question – meaning “to whose benefit?” in Latin –
asks who stands to gain from actively upholding academic standards, and who stands to gain from their
decline.
Let’s first consider the top leadership of a university: those responsible for making ends meet. This
group, having increasingly lost ground in the battle for funding from the Commonwealth and
having precious little endowment or alumni-sourced revenue – frequent go-to sources in other
countries – has been pushed further and further toward dependence on the market for education
services in order to meet its spending targets.
This translates into a need to focus squarely on customer appeal. The question then changes to: what
do young high school graduates want from university?
Most want a job when they get out, and most also want to have a pleasant student experience, and
neither of these is particularly well-correlated with their program’s level of academic excellence. Most
also want to attend the best university that they can get into, and this would normally lead to pressure to
uphold academic standards, since the university that is seen as “the best” will presumably be more
successful at attracting students.
However, university quality isn’t always obvious to an outsider. What’s more, Australian domestic
students do not typically change cities in order to attend university, meaning that Group of Eight
universities all have either monopoly or two-player oligopoly access to demand from most of the top
students within their home city.
This translates into market power for those institutions lucky enough to be already at the top of the
rankings, which in turn means less of a competitive incentive to keep standards high in order to keep
students coming.
Finally, let’s consider the incentives of academics. Academics are judged on both research productivity
and teaching “quality”, where the latter is typically measured using student evaluations of teaching that
are conducted online.
Because no serious incentives are given to students to fill in these online forms, most response samples
are comically small in size. It would not be unreasonable to suspect that those students who do fill out
evaluations are frequently the ones who either adored or hated the teacher.
Students don’t like feeling bad about their performance or being pulled up for academic misconduct, and
can use teaching evaluations as a vehicle to make their displeasure known.
Academics also frequently face large time and effort costs if they pursue problems like plagiarism and
academic misconduct, not to mention the raised eyebrows from university management if too large a
fraction of students fail.
In sum, the university bureaucracy sees strong incentives to let standards slide in order to please
prospective students and thereby get more revenue, while the individual academic at the coal face sees
strong incentives to go easy on students so that students are happy and the academic’s chances of
promotion are favourable.
Lesson 2: academia is defined by academics
Notwithstanding the protestations of teaching and learning administrators, academic standards cannot
be perfectly pinned down in assessment rubrics or statements of learning objectives.
This is because evaluating university students' work is largely subjective: it is based on the gut feel of the
person doing the evaluation, where that gut feel is formed over years of exposure to the type of work that
is expected in the given discipline.
This means that academics are ultimately the only valid institutional store of knowledge about what
academic standards should be.
There is a better chance of Australian universities keeping up with international best practice if
academics have been rigorously trained, are active in professional bodies, travel regularly to high-profile
conferences, and so on.
In truly world-class universities, the bureaucracy plays second fiddle to the academics who produce the
service that the university sells. By contrast, in many universities in Australia, arguably the tail is wagging
the dog.
Entrenched and disproportionately powerful bureaucracies act like fiefdoms, perennially announcing new
platforms that the rank-and-file scurry to be seen to embed, and rewarding or punishing academics in
accordance with how well they are seen to toe the party line.
The policy response
What to do? Some countries have trialled the creation of explicit sector-wide learning standards,
endorsed by various groups, in a bid to control what gets taught (like the Assessment of Higher
Education Learning Outcomes in the UK).
The Commonwealth-sponsored National Discipline Standards in Australia project, which taps
selected professionals from across the country to develop explicit statements of academic standards in
different fields (such as economics), falls under this heading. Without wide adoption by academics and
embedding in university departments, however, such standards have a hollow ring to them.
No intervention will provide an overnight fix. Those who benefit from the present system will wince at the
prospect of the potential remedies below being put to public debate and independent evaluation.
1. Require student evaluations to be submitted by every student as a pre-requisite for the release of
their final marks each semester. This small systems change – designed to shift students' incentives
to provide feedback – will make the provision of student feedback operate more like voting, and less
like blackmail.
2. Have teachers evaluate each other on a rotating basis and use these evaluations in promotion
decisions. At the same time, mandate the complete freedom of individual academics to fail as many
students as they see fit to fail, ensuring that appeal committees (staffed by academics) and support
services are in place to process an increase in the numbers of failing students.
3. Connect the admissions and teaching functions of the university by increasing the voice of teaching
academics in the admissions process. Admissions decisions are an academic matter, and should be
treated as such.
4. Mandate an increase in the voice of academics within university governance more broadly. While
Commonwealth funding to the higher education sector has fallen dramatically over the past 30 years,
it is also true that large amounts of money are spent on large salaries to university
bureaucrats with questionable academic credentials. We should design university governance to
raise the voice of those who know what academic standards are, and whose personal incentives it
serves to uphold them.
Read more of The Conversation’s coverage of Australian university standards here.
http://teu.ac.nz/2015/04/universities-corruption-allegations/
AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES FACE CORRUPTION ALLEGATIONS
Tertiary Education Union – Te HautÅ« Kahurangi o Aotearoa 23 APRIL, 2015
Australia has been gripped by a national debate over how to fund its university education. But perhaps there’s a
more important question: what is it worth? writes ABC’s Four Cornersprogramme.
The ABC documentary has unearthed alarming new evidence of a decline in academic standards at institutions
around Australia.
Lecturers and tutors are grappling with a tide of academic misconduct and pressure from faculty managers to pass
weak students. Many say commercial imperatives are overtaking academic rigour.
As federal government funding for universities has declined, vice-chancellors have been forced to look elsewhere
to fill the void.
And for much of the past two decades, they’ve been tapping into a booming market – full fee-paying overseas
students.
Australia’s 40 universities are pulling in billions of dollars from students who are desperate for a degree from an
Australian university and the possibility of a job and permanent residency.
But to ensure a steady flow of students from overseas, universities have had to ensure their entry requirements are
sufficiently low.
Four Corners also provides alarming evidence of corruption among the network of overseas agents who tout for
business on universities’ behalf.
“The risk is they’re going to put applicants through to the university with fake qualifications or who they know
have cheated on tests, or who are trying to undertake some sort of visa fraud.” – Corruption investigator
Ironically, these forces are also placing international students under enormous pressure.
Despite the promises of agents, and after meeting universities’ entry requirements, many don’t have the level of
English needed to successfully undertake a degree course.
It’s a situation that leaves students isolated and desperate; a scenario fuelling a thriving black market in plagiarism
and the corruption of some academics.
An experienced lecturer has told Four Corners the failure to maintain standards in the course she teaches means
graduates could put lives in danger when they begin working.
“They might find themselves being the only registered nurse on duty. And that is something that frightens me.” –
University Nursing lecturer
With universities now hooked on the income derived from foreign students, very few university employees can
openly acknowledge these problems. Those who do, say that they face the possibility they will lose their job.
http://www.afr.com/news/policy/education/policy-failure-is-to-blame-for-university-students-lack-ofenglish-20150426-1mqa2t
Policy failure is to blame for university students' lack of English
Australian Financial Review
Apr 27 2015 at 12:00 AM
by Alex Barthel
Last week's ABC-TV Four Corners program Degrees of Deception, highlights that Australian universities
are not providing adequate support to the significant number of students found to have serious English
language difficulties. Funds generated by overseas student enrolments that are being used to address a
shortfall in federal government funding should instead be directed towards providing academic language
and learning support to these students. An integrated, discipline-specific approach would be the most
effective.
Based on personal observations and communications over the past 15 years with Australian universities,
where post-enrolment language assessments are conducted, it is estimated that between 25 and 35 per
cent of all domestic and international first-year university students have moderate to severe English
language difficulties, creating considerable challenges for academic staff as well as the students
themselves. Employers report that many university graduates are not employable as their language
proficiency is below that required to start a university course.
"English language proficiency" is defined as the ability to use the English language to appropriately
communicate meaning in spoken and written academic contexts. This can range from simple tasks such
as discussing work with fellow students, to more complex ones such as writing an academic paper or
addressing a professional audience. Problems with students' academic language and learning skills can
range from specific concerns over lack of grammatical accuracy in speaking and writing skills to a lack of
overall written and oral proficiency.
Irrespective of the English language entry requirements of the university, most students, in particular
those from language backgrounds other than English, require English language development throughout
the course of their studies. Even students who commence their higher education with a high level of
general English language proficiency still need to acquire specific academic language and learning skills
during their studies, and the acquisition of these skills is part of improving English language proficiency.
University policies, rules and procedures regarding academic language and learning matters are
inadequate and inconsistent, as is the resourcing of academic language and learning services and
related educational strategies. Consequently, academic staff are increasingly frustrated about students'
lack of preparedness for university-level study and the lack of institutional support.
Universities have been slow to adapt to the wide-ranging support needs of a student body whose
demographic composition has changed drastically over the past 50 years. Multiculturalism and other
equity policies have increased access for students from a wider range of educational and socioeconomic backgrounds than in the 1960s. With an increasingly diverse student population in Australian
universities, it can no longer be assumed that students commence university study with a sufficient level
of academic language proficiency.
What the Four Corners program barely mentioned is that the federal government fails to adequately fund
tertiary education to meet Australia's skills needs. It only provides about a third of university
funding. The recruitment of overseas students, who now represent over a quarter of all university
students in Australia, has expanded to partially address this shortfall. International education is
Australia's largest services export, contributing $16.3 billion to the economy in 2013–14. But the funds
generated from international education are rarely invested in providing necessary language support to
students.
The recent report Learning the hard way, by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption,
highlights the extent of mismanagement of the recruitment processes of international students by
universities. For example, under the streamlined visa processing arrangements introduced in 2012,
universities, rather than the Department of Immigration Border Protection, now determine what language
tests are acceptable for study visa purposes, provided these have been checked by overseas
agents who, as the Four Corners program says, are often not trustworthy people.
At most Australian universities there are some high-quality language support structures and educational
strategies in place to develop students' academic and professional literacy. However, these support
services are not adequately resourced to meet the growing need.
Recent research has shown that academic language and learning is most effectively taught when it is
integrated into the curriculum of each degree. Because reading and writing practices are specific to each
discipline, these discipline-specific literacies are most effectively learned in conjunction with course
content. In an integrated approach, learning how to write in a particular field of study becomes an
integral part of this field of study. Development of academic language and learning is more likely to occur
when it is linked to need within a particular course, for example academic activities or assessment tasks.
This approach, as well as the need for national English language standards in higher education, has
been endorsed by the English Language Competence National Symposium, which was organised by the
federal government body, Australian Education International, in 2007.
In 2010, the former Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR)
developed six English Language Standards for Higher Education that applied to every Australian higher
education provider and required them to:
1. Ensure that its students are sufficiently proficient in English to participate effectively in their higher
education studies on entry.
2. Ensure that prospective and current students are informed about their responsibilities for further
developing their English language proficiency during their higher education studies.
3. Ensure that resourcing for English language development meets students' needs throughout their
studies.
4. Actively develop students' English language proficiency during their studies.
5. Ensure that students are appropriately proficient in English when they graduate.
6. Use evidence from a variety of sources to monitor and improve its support for the development of
students' English language proficiency.
At the time of their development, it was thought these standards would be a crucial part of establishing a
global standards framework. However, the Higher Education Standards Panel is not including these
newly developed English language standards in its current review of the national academic standards
framework, thus leaving the higher education sector to self-regulate language proficiency levels. With
current funding pressures, this will lead to increasingly inadequate support mechanisms for the many
students requiring assistance with academic language and learning.
The Australian economy benefits from the rich diversity of students and graduates of our universities.
But if adequate language support structures are not maintained, academic standards will decline and the
national and international reputation of our university sector will suffer greatly.
Alex Barthel is a higher education consultant in language and learning and the former president of
the Association for Academic Language & Learning.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/04/new-reports-consider-whether-australias-quest-international-studenttuition-revenue
The Students Universities 'Cannot Afford to Fail'
INSIDE HIGHER ED, May 4, 2015
By Elizabeth Redden
A recent investigative news program combined with a report from a governmental anticorruption
commission have stirred up a debate in Australia about the prevalence of fraud in international student
recruitment and the alleged slippage of academic standards as the country’s universities have grown
increasingly dependent on the tuition these students bring. The debate in Australia -- where international
students account formore than a fifth of university enrollments, compared to justabout 4 percent in the
U.S. -- arguably has implications for American universities as they seek to grow international student
enrollments and increasingly embrace the use of commissioned agents in recruiting, a practice widely
accepted in Australia.
“Universities generally have become less able to demand appropriate minimum levels of English
proficiency as the global supply of university places outstrips demand,” states a report on international
students, “Learning the Hard Way,” recently completed by the Independent Commission Against
Corruption (ICAC), a governmental body in New South Wales (the state in which Sydney is located).
“In short, the result is that universities in NSW have come to depend financially on a cohort of students,
many of whom are struggling to pass, but who the university cannot afford to fail. Standards can be
compromised to accommodate the lower levels of student abilities, but reputational cost and internal
resistance creates a floor under academic standards. A significant gap remains between the capabilities
of some international students and the academic standards demanded by universities.”
The release of the ICAC report was followed soon after by the airing of an Australian Broadcasting
Corporation investigationinto the use of international student recruitment agents and the apparent
addiction of universities to the revenue international students bring. The report by the television news
program Four Corners described pressure on academics “to ignore plagiarism and to pass weak
students.”
The Four Corners program resulted in a flurry of op-eds in Australian newspapers, ranging from calls for
a federal investigation to criticisms of the Four Corners program and the ICAC report as being “onesided” on the issue of recruitment agents. In The Conversation, a publication that features opinion and
analysis written by academics, headlines of pieces published in the wake of the Four Corners report
include “Australian unis should take responsibility for corrupt practices in international education,” “The
slide of academic standards in Australia: a cautionary tale” and “Biased reports on international students
not helpful.”
The umbrella association Universities Australia released a statement in which it called for an
investigation of “any evidence of cheating, lax academic standards and malpractice by agents” but
rejected any insinuation of “systemic” problems in these areas.
“As with any multibillion-dollar sector, there are risks, as bothFour Corners and the NSW Independent
Commission Against Corruption concede. Universities have been working continuously to reduce and
mitigate them through ever-evolving processes and systems, plagiarism detection software, new task
forces and terminating the use of suspect agents,” the association’s chief executive, Belinda Robinson,
said in the statement.
Issues of Academic Standards
There is no question that the Four Corners report has caused a stir.
“It has hit a nerve because a lot of what the Four Cornersprogram is showing is very true; people have
been aware of it a long time,” said Alex Barthel, a higher education consultant and the inaugural
president of the Association for Academic Language and Learning. In an op-ed that appeared last week
inThe Australian Financial Review, Barthel, who was interviewed in the Four Corners report, estimates
that “between 25 and 35 percent of all domestic and international first-year university students have
moderate to severe English language difficulties, creating considerable challenges for academic staff as
well as the students themselves. Employers report that many university graduates are not employable,
as their language proficiency is below that required to start a university course.” (A 2010 reportfrom the
Australian government found that while the majority of employers were satisfied with the English
language skills of international graduates of Australian universities, about one in five employers rated the
graduates’ English skills as poor.)
“Irrespective of how students are recruited, where the universities are lacking seriously is in using some
of the funds that they are making from the profits of international students to provide the students with
the kind of language support that they need to get up to speed,” Barthel said in an interview withInside
Higher Ed.
“The issue around academic standards is a really big one for Australian universities because we’re
widening participation,” said Sophia Arkoudis, an associate professor and the deputy director of the
University of Melbourne’s Center for the Study of Higher Education. “We’re bringing in more diverse
students,” including from within Australia. “It’s not just an international student issue.”
“If you’re widening participation, and the entry standards that we’re using to allow students into university
are broadening along with that, we really need to focus more on what our exit standards are going to
look like in order to protect the academic standards of Australian universities,” said Arkoudis, who in her
own research has found that “it cannot be assumed that international students who complete their
degree in an English-speaking university have developed their language skills in all areas.”
In a 2009 study comparing standardized International English Language Testing System
(IELTS) scores at entry to and exit from an Australian university, Arkoudis and a co-author found that
international students showed the least improvement in writing and hypothesized that this may be
because they aren’t being asked to undertake extended writing assignments in some fields.
Improvements in speaking, meanwhile, seemed to be conditional on how frequently students practiced
English in social settings.
International students typically have to meet an IELTS or other standardized English test score
requirement to gain entry into Australian university programs, though both the ICAC and Four
Corners reports note the existence of pathway programs -- alsoproliferating in the U.S. -- which focus on
English language coursework and provide an alternative route into universities for international students
who wouldn't meet the English language requirements for direct university admission.
“With more than 20 percent of total enrollments being international, the large majority fee paying, the
Australian higher ed system is more dependent on income from international student ‘trade’ than any
other system,” said Anthony Welch, a professor of education at the University of Sydney. “While most
academic staff work conscientiously and hard to help international students, who often need additional
language and other forms of support… there is unquestionably administrative and commercial pressure
to not allow international students to fail.”
Welch said the challenge in Australian higher education is to balance the commercial motivation against
other imperatives. “I think most institutions try to do their best, but if push comes to shove sometimes
that commercial imperative will win out, and I think that’s where a lot of the problems lie.”
Issues of Recruitment Agents
One manifestation of the commercialization of international higher education is the increasing reliance
on recruiting agents who are paid per capita commissions. Thecontroversial practice, which is growing in
popularity among U.S. universities, is by comparison more long-standing and wide-spread at Australian
institutions. A report released last week by the Australian government’s Productivity Commission
recommended that the country’s universities should reduce their reliance on educational agencies, which
by one estimate are the source for 63 percent of international university enrollments Down Under. The
report argues that agents are driven largely by quantity considerations and argues that “excessive
reliance” on them “may lead to a less than optimal mix of international students, with some of the best
students enrolling in institutions in other countries such as the U.S. and the U.K.”
The Productivity Commission report also cites anecdotal evidence of "unscrupulous behavior" on the
part of some agents. "At the root of concerns about agent behavior is a set of incentives that lead agents
to act in a manner that may not be optimal for providers, students or from a broader Australian public
policy perspective," the report says.
The Four Corners program by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) featured two examples of
agents seeming to endorse the doctoring of credentials in conversations with an undercover reporter.
The two agencies in question, Shinyway International and EduGlobal, have disputed their portrayal on
the news program as inaccurate or misleading (“The fact that ABC could only pick out two out-ofcontext and edited sentences made by the EduGlobal adviser from a 20 minutes’ counseling session
has shown that the ABC could not prove their point of ‘corrupt agencies' with respect to EduGlobal,” the
latter agency said.)
Shinyway and EduGlobal are both certified by the American International Recruitment Council, an
association that certifies agents in an accreditationlike process and which seeks to promote good
practices in agent-based recruitment. The association has been in touch with the two agencies to
request additional information, said AIRC's executive director, John Deupree: “In sum, while the
commission does not currently have sufficient information on which to base any judgments about any of
the interviewed agencies, it is continuing to review the matter. Should the commission decide to
undertake a further review, no decisions will be made without due process and complete
documentation. Just as with academic accreditation, when such a standards violation is determined, the
AIRC certification process proscribes a range of actions ranging from a monitored internal improvement
plan up to and including the public revocation of certification.”
More generally, Deupree emphasized that fraud in admissions is not just an issue involving agents and
that the onus falls on institutions to track the success of their international students regardless of the
channel through which they’re recruited. “Fraud and misrepresentation can occur at any point along the
enrollment spectrum -- beginning with parents, students themselves, third parties and both sending and
receiving educational institutions,” he said.
However, the ICAC report emphasizes many of the challenges specific to the management of agent
relationships. Noting that some Australian universities have relationships with 200-300 agents, the ICAC
report recommends that universities limit the number of agencies with which they work and that they
design the incentive compensation structure in order to reward the agent for retention of the referred
student rather than just enrollment.
“Without exception, all universities contacted by the commission had experienced instances of agents
submitting false documentation, assisting students to corruptly pass admission processing or attempting
to bribe staff to approve certain student applications,” states the ICAC report.
“Schools should really do their due diligence before starting work with agents or before intensifying
existing work with agents,” said Eddie West, the director of international initiatives at the National
Association for College Admission Counseling, which does not endorse the use of commissioned agents
but has issued a guide with recommendations for institutions that choose to work with them. “It is an
area that’s just fraught with many risks -- risks to students, risk to schools, financial risks, misadvisement
risks.”
West said that most U.S. institutions probably don't pay much attention to international student-related
issues in Australia -- but he thinks that perhaps they should. “These reports are vivid reminders that
schools really need to approach this activity carefully and with eyes wide open.”
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/video/university-degree-scam/1829128.html
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University degree scam
POSTED: 06 May 2015 23:30
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