Top universities lowering English standards – Report

A new report says top Australian universities are using backdoor entry programmes to lower English standards for overseas enrolments amid a reliance on foreign student income that is unmatched in the English-speaking world, write Jordan Baker and Adam Carey for the Brisbane Times.

The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) research paper said the institutions, including the universities of Melbourne, Sydney and New South Wales, were compromising standards and taking “massive financial risks in pursuit of this pot of gold”. The report’s author, Sydney University sociologist and CIS fellow Salvatore Babones, called on vice-chancellors to urgently raise admissions standards and reduce international enrolments to reduce their vulnerability to sudden revenue collapse.

Overseas students now make up a quarter of Australia’s university enrolments, and two of the country’s most prestigious institutions, the universities of Sydney and New South Wales, rely on a single country, China, for almost a quarter of their total revenue, the report said.
Full report on the Brisbane Times site