Aussie PM also take note of this report.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, said he would consult
vice-chancellors and the Education Minister, Julie Bishop. "But I'd
like to look below the headline of that research before saying
other than that, on the face of it, it's concerning," he said.
Pressured to pass poor students,Harriet Alexander
Higher Education Reporter,January 30, 2007
UNIVERSITY teachers are passing overseas students despite poor
English and substandard work because of pressure from
administrators to minimise the failure rate, academics say.
One recently retired academic said he passed overseas students who
handed in work he would never have accepted from domestic
students.
And a former teacher at the University of Central Queensland's
Sydney campus said exams in the legal course were open book
and multiple choice so they were easy enough for the overseas
students to pass.
The claims come in response to a study by the demographer Bob
Birrell, which found more than a third of overseas students were
graduating from university with a lower standard of English than is
required for entry.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, said he would consult
vice-chancellors and the Education Minister, Julie Bishop. "But I'd
like to look below the headline of that research before saying
other than that, on the face of it, it's concerning," he
said.
Ms Bishop said the report was an "extraordinary attack" on
universities. "I have seen no evidence to suggest that students
aren't able to complete their courses because they're failing in
English, yet they are being passed by the university."
Most universities have guidelines recommending the maximum number
of students that should fail any given course.
John Forge, a philosophy science lecturer who worked at
universities in NSW and Queensland for more than 30 years, said he
resigned in disgust at the degradation of standards. "If
you failed more than 25 per cent you had to explain yourself," Dr
Forge said. "The assumption was, if they got in they must be up to
the standard, so if you want to throw out more than a quarter
there's something wrong with the admissions process and they're not
going to admit to that."
Another former lecturer, at Central Queensland University,
estimated up to half of her class plagiarised assignments because
the standard of English they handed in was so superior to the level
at which they spoke.
Sometimes sections of their essays were written in a different
font, indicating they had been cut and pasted from the internet. "I
found about 40 students of mine that had plagiarised but I was told
by a colleague, don't fail that many, they'll just target
you."
Angela Delves, a deputy vice-chancellor at CQU, said international
and domestic students were assessed to the same standards. Tony
Pollock, the chief executive of IDP Education, which administers
the International English Language Testing System, said
universities should start testing students as they graduated.with
AAP
---http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/teachers-pressured-to-pass-poor-students/2007/01/29/1169919274734.html
2.In Education forex ,we truth.
3.All news from the democratic and free Aussie press.
Dunt kill me--the messenger.
