Hmm. There's way too much generalisation going on in this
thread. As such, there are little grains of truth scattered here
and there, but you're going to need to be selective about how you
apply them.
To some extent, what some people have said here about it being easy
to pass is true. It's not in any univeristy's interests to have a
high fail rate. Go for your classes, do what you're supposed to do
and unless you're spectacularly imcompetent, anybody can
pass.
On the other hand, if you're looking at more than just scraping by
with passes, it becomes a different proposition altogether. I've
seen a whole lot of Singaporean and other overseas students come in
and be able to get an honours degree while waiting for their nail
polish to dry. Of course, they've been bitterly disappointed. At
the sharp end of the business, typically within the top 15%,
there's no lack of competition.
The bottom line is that it's really hard to fail, and doing well's
a bit of a challenge, but if all you want to do is pass, no sweat.
More likely it's this middle band that sngyze's daddy dearest has
encountered in his limited experience.
As for the English requirement, trendz may be correct in a limited
way. If you're doing something that hardly uses English, you're
probably not going to be too limited, although you'll still need to
understand the finer points of what's required of you during the
course and in assignments. On the other hand, if you're doing a
business degree or some other course that requires a significant
amount of written communication, deficiencies in English would be a
rather large handicap.
Bottom line: English skills may or may not be important, depending
on the subject you're taking.
Rather than looking at the university's reputation (as most people
here seem to have done), look at the particular department or
faculty's reputation, and also make the distinction between
undergrad and postgrad. I don't have too many complaints about
Melbourne Uni's postgrad programs - the university tends to focus
on research rather than teaching, and as such the postgrads get
decent research support. On the other hand, having tutored enough
of their undergrads, the undergrad program leaves much to be
desired.
Bottom line: be specific when you're researching your options.
Don't generalise.
