tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/australian-university-standards-16249/articlesAustralian university standards – The Conversation2021-06-29T01:13:32Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1559662021-06-29T01:13:32Z2021-06-29T01:13:32ZAustralia’s universities are on unceded land. Here’s how they must reconcile with First Nations people<p>University campuses are urban cultural institutions inextricably linked to the “making” of cities. They are also sited on unceded First Nations land, in prime locations.</p>
<p>Meaningful attempts to recognise this – and better represent Indigenous culture in the fabric of the campus – have been sporadic dating back to the late 20th century. </p>
<p>Momentum has continued in recent years as architectural, landscape and urban designers have <a href="https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/indigenous-perspectives-in-urban-design">experienced an awakening</a> to Indigenous knowledge systems, voices and values, and to the importance of following best practice both <a href="https://www.ico-d.org/resources/indigo">internationally</a> and <a href="https://www.governmentarchitect.nsw.gov.au/resources/ga/media/files/ga/discussion-papers/discussion-paper-designing-with-country-2020-06-02.pdf?la=enand">domestically</a>. </p>
<p>This awakening continued with the first Australian Indigenous design symposium, <a href="https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/indigenous-design-symposium">Go Back to Where You Came From: Indigenous Design — Past | Present | Future</a>, in 2018.</p>
<p>At the symposium, a Wailwan and Kamilaroi architect and lecturer at the University of Melbourne, Jefa Greenaway, stated:</p>
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<p>Ideally, design in Australia would incorporate, consider or actively connect to the deep history of Indigenous occupation of this continent for millennia.</p>
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<p>Yet, there is still much room for transforming words into action.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wesley-enoch-the-2021-budget-must-think-big-and-reinvest-in-the-social-capital-of-ideas-160341">Wesley Enoch: the 2021 budget must think big and reinvest in the social capital of ideas</a>
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<h2>Addressing Indigenous representation on campus</h2>
<p>A recent Australian Research Council discovery project, <a href="https://repository.architecture.com.au/download/chapters/nsw-chapter/architecture-bulletins/ab-winter-spring-2016-placemaking-issue.pdf">Campus: Building Modern Australian Universities</a>, led by the University of Melbourne, undertook a national study of Australia’s modern campuses. The project focused on the professional disciplines that have planned, designed, constructed and managed these built environments since the second world war.</p>
<p>A key finding in the study, scheduled for release by the University of Western Australia Press in early 2022, is the emerging centrality of Indigenous representation on campus.</p>
<p>A desktop survey was conducted to understand the “state of play” across Australia’s 42 universities and their campuses.</p>
<p>The key themes included:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the level of recognition of respective Traditional Owners and acknowledgement of Country</p></li>
<li><p>the presence of reconciliation action plans or other documents providing guiding frameworks towards reconciliation</p></li>
<li><p>Indigenous representation in campus master plans</p></li>
<li><p>evidence of Indigeneity in the landscapes, buildings and outdoor art emerging since the establishment of early projects like the award-winning <a href="https://www.utas.edu.au/riawunna">Riawunna Centre</a> at the University of Tasmania.</p></li>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Riawunna Newnham campus" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394698/original/file-20210413-13-yae3cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394698/original/file-20210413-13-yae3cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394698/original/file-20210413-13-yae3cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394698/original/file-20210413-13-yae3cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394698/original/file-20210413-13-yae3cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394698/original/file-20210413-13-yae3cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394698/original/file-20210413-13-yae3cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Riawunna Centre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Provided by Riawunna Centre for Aboriginal Education at the University of Tasmania</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The study revealed a recognition process in progress. </p>
<p>Universities are part of the growing community movement towards reconciling with First Nations people. The survey revealed over 90% of all Australian universities recognise the Traditional Owners on publicly available documents, with 75% providing this recognition on the front pages of their websites. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.reconciliation.org.au/reconciliation-action-plans/">Reconciliation action plans</a> endorsed by Reconciliation Australia have been developed for 60% of universities. However, only half of these say they were developed in conjunction with Indigenous people. Even fewer of these plans (40%) refer specifically to incorporating Indigenous matters directly into planning and design. </p>
<h2>Exploring Indigenous input into campus design</h2>
<p>A critical survey finding is that future excursions into campus design issues must be fundamentally collaborative and co-led by Indigenous people. </p>
<p>While nearly 70% of universities have a publicly accessible campus master plan, only a quarter contain Aboriginal content. </p>
<p>Two-thirds of universities in the study had at least one physical landscape or garden with Indigenous elements, such as yarning circles, bush food gardens, cultural walks, art or other physical features. Only half of these had Indigenous people’s involvement in their production. </p>
<p>Only one, <a href="https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/festivals/antidote/digital/articles/learning-from-country-indigenous-design.html">RMIT’s Ngarara Place</a>, built in 2015, is known to have been designed by an all-Indigenous team. Ngarara Place signifies Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s cultures and histories as manifest on the lands of the Kulin Nation and its custodians, the Woi-Wurrung and Boon Wurrung people.</p>
<p>While 60% of campuses have buildings linked to Indigenous culture, it is only in the past two decades that they have been purpose-built.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-housing-policies-must-be-based-on-community-needs-not-what-non-indigenous-people-think-they-need-162999">Aboriginal housing policies must be based on community needs — not what non-Indigenous people think they need</a>
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<p>This desktop survey suggests an incomplete revolution. It raises critical questions about how design can negotiate the interface between Indigenous and non-Indigenous worldviews in the creation of current and future Australian university campuses. </p>
<p>This task is made harder as this research suggests few universities have developed a critical understanding of the urban Indigenous environments on which they were built. As Greenaway identifies above, incorporating such understanding is necessary to actively connect to the deep history of Indigenous occupation of this continent. </p>
<p>Including such information in the design and implementation of university campuses is a critical step towards true reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. </p>
<p>After all, universities produce Australia’s next generation of professionals and practitioners across a vast array of fields, including those disciplines most responsible for the country’s future built environment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155966/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Saniga receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Freestone receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ross Wissing does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Universities must meaningfully acknowledge they are sited on unceded First Nations land and Indigenous culture should be recognised in campus design. These steps are vital for reconciliation.Ross Wissing, PhD Candidate, School of Architecture and Built Environment, Deakin UniversityAndrew Saniga, Associate Professor in Landscape Architecture, Planning and Urbanism, The University of MelbourneRobert Freestone, Professor of Planning, School of Built Environment, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1523132021-01-06T19:00:20Z2021-01-06T19:00:20ZNew global ranking system shows Australian universities are ahead of the pack<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377124/original/file-20210105-13-jkr9tv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C107%2C5982%2C3880&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/melbourne-australia-17-jul-2019-view-1589836228">EQRoy/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whether it’s <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/basics/ppp.htm">purchasing power parity</a> or the <a href="https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1131&context=jsc">Happiness Index</a>, global comparisons require benchmarking. Sport does this well with World Cups and the Olympics, or better still the single ranking familiar to tennis and golf aficionados. </p>
<p>The problem with universities is there are around a dozen rankings. Each is a variable mix of research, reputation and teaching metrics, leading to quite different and confusing results.</p>
<p>University rankings certainly have their critics, who point to the potential to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/global-rankings-are-distorting-universities-decisions-says-anu-chief-20201111-p56do9.html">mislead students and distort research priorities</a>. Our newly developed Aggregate Ranking of Top Universities (<a href="https://research.unsw.edu.au/artu">ARTU</a>) overcomes the flaws of singling out performance in any one ranking. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-the-black-hole-of-global-university-rankings-rediscovering-the-true-value-of-knowledge-and-ideas-140236">Beyond the black hole of global university rankings: rediscovering the true value of knowledge and ideas</a>
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<p>This aggregated ranking helps to broaden the range of assessment — from research citations (frequency referred to in the academic literature) and impact, through to reputation, and qualitative as well as quantitative measures. It also helps address the inherent imperfections of any one of the individual ranking systems, when seen on their own.</p>
<p>The ARTU orders universities by cumulative performance over the mainstream scoring systems. Condensing the three most influential — the Quacquarelli Symonds (<a href="https://www.qs.com/rankings/">QS</a>), Times Higher Education (<a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2020/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats">THE</a>) and Academic Ranking of World Universities (<a href="http://www.shanghairanking.com/">ARWU</a>) — gives a single broad overview of a university’s position.</p>
<h2>How does Australia fare?</h2>
<p>Australia now has 13 universities in the global top 200. That’s an increase from just eight two years ago. </p>
<p>Australia ranks fourth in the world in 2020, after the US, UK and Germany. Indeed per head of population, Australia is well ahead of these nations, and second behind the Netherlands for nations of more than 10 million.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377115/original/file-20210105-17-aell35.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Bar chart showing Australian universities in the top 200 ARTU rankings" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377115/original/file-20210105-17-aell35.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377115/original/file-20210105-17-aell35.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377115/original/file-20210105-17-aell35.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377115/original/file-20210105-17-aell35.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377115/original/file-20210105-17-aell35.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377115/original/file-20210105-17-aell35.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377115/original/file-20210105-17-aell35.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://research.unsw.edu.au/artu/artu-results">The Conversation/ARTU/UNSW</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>This is no new entrant fluke, as Australia has seven universities in the top 100. That’s 7% of the best universities for <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/australia-population/">0.3% of the world’s population</a> (or <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2020/October/weo-report?c=512,914,612,614,311,213,911,314,193,122,912,313,419,513,316,913,124,339,638,514,218,963,616,223,516,918,748,618,624,522,622,156,626,628,228,924,233,632,636,634,238,662,960,423,935,128,611,321,243,248,469,253,642,643,939,734,644,819,172,132,646,648,915,134,652,174,328,258,656,654,336,263,268,532,944,176,534,536,429,433,178,436,136,343,158,439,916,664,826,542,967,443,917,544,941,446,666,668,672,946,137,546,674,676,548,556,678,181,867,682,684,273,868,921,948,943,686,688,518,728,836,558,138,196,278,692,694,962,142,449,564,565,283,853,288,293,566,964,182,359,453,968,922,714,862,135,716,456,722,942,718,724,576,936,961,813,726,199,733,184,524,361,362,364,732,366,144,146,463,528,923,738,578,537,742,866,369,744,186,925,869,746,926,466,112,111,298,927,846,299,582,487,474,754,698,&s=NGDPD,&sy=2018&ey=2025&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1">1.6% of global GDP</a>). Two Australian institutions, Monash and UNSW, are among the five that jumped more than 20 places within the top 100 between 2012 and 2020.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/university-rankings-how-do-they-compare-and-what-do-they-mean-for-students-104011">University rankings: how do they compare and what do they mean for students?</a>
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<h2>Asia on the rise</h2>
<p>Although rankings are compiled annually, performance is a lagging indicator <a href="https://recognition.webofscience.com/awards/highly-cited/2020/methodology/">assessed</a> over <a href="https://www.elsevier.com/research-intelligence/resource-library/scopus-scival-university-rankings-ebook">several</a> <a href="http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU-Methodology-2020.html">years</a>. For instance, research citations can be judged between five to 11 years later. </p>
<p>On the one hand, this should help cushion our pandemic-affected universities from precipitous falls over the next few years. On the other, it conspires against rapid rises up the global ladder. </p>
<p>This makes the ascendancy of East Asian universities, and in particular those from China, all the more remarkable. The top two Chinese universities now come in at 18th and 27th internationally, ahead of Australia’s lead, the University of Melbourne at 29th. The next four Chinese universities have risen more than 100 spots since 2012 to crack the top 75. This is especially impressive given that research is largely judged on English-language outputs.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377299/original/file-20210106-23-1b8rycd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Bar chart showing number of top 200 universities per million population by country" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377299/original/file-20210106-23-1b8rycd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377299/original/file-20210106-23-1b8rycd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377299/original/file-20210106-23-1b8rycd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377299/original/file-20210106-23-1b8rycd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377299/original/file-20210106-23-1b8rycd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377299/original/file-20210106-23-1b8rycd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377299/original/file-20210106-23-1b8rycd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://research.unsw.edu.au/artu/capita">Chart: The Conversation. Data: ARTU/UNSW</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Australia has fared well in this battle of the old versus new order. Long-established universities benefit from major endowments, philanthropy and long-run reputation. Australia’s universities in the top 200 have an average age of 78, compared to over two centuries for overseas unis in top 200. </p>
<p>China has this disadvantage too. But China does have the benefit of a booming economy, which drives top-down investment in cutting-edge technologies and academic excellence through STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) research at scale.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-china-a-threat-or-opportunity-for-australian-universities-49145">The rise of China: a threat or opportunity for Australian universities?</a>
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<h2>A measure of the value of international students</h2>
<p>It can be argued that Australian universities thrived on the back of 28 years of growth, a desirable location, political stability and relatively open borders to knowledge-based entrants. But the standout contribution has been from international students. In absolute terms universities in Australia have the <a href="https://monitor.icef.com/2019/11/australian-international-student-enrolments-up-11-through-september-2019/">second-highest number</a> after the US.</p>
<p>Simply put, the margin between international and domestic student income covers the indirect costs of strategic investment in research, teaching and other areas. Australian universities need to <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/reportrep/024212/toc_pdf/AustralianGovernmentFundingArrangementsfornon-NHMRCResearch.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">raise around an additional dollar</a> in support and infrastructure spending for every dollar won in grant income. And all this while fulfilling the core mission of educating local students, with <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/qualifications-and-work/latest-release">43% of 25-to-34-year-olds now having a bachelor degree</a>, up from 34% in 2010. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/7-6-billion-and-11-of-researchers-our-estimate-of-how-much-australian-university-research-stands-to-lose-by-2024-146672">$7.6 billion and 11% of researchers: our estimate of how much Australian university research stands to lose by 2024</a>
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<p>But coronavirus has laid bare the Achilles heel in this business model. Closed borders and geopolitical shifts have delivered a major blow to cross-subsidisation, as well as to the international collaboration so crucial for team-based research addressing the world’s grand challenges.</p>
<p>Vaccines now offer some light at the end of the tunnel, but it will be many years before the world resembles its former self, if ever. Trust in science and an R&D-led economy argue for a major role for universities in the recovery from COVID-19. But the only certainty is uncertainty.</p>
<p>So expect considerable volatility in higher education. How well our universities stack up will depend in part on how international competitors fare, and in particular their relative economies and resourcefulness. Australia looks well positioned here, but will need to weather the threats posed by contraction, domestic constraints and a challenging business model.</p>
<p>Rankings are not perfect. They do not assess all aspects of the mission of Australian universities and are rightly subject to criticism, often from institutions not doing so well. But rankings are the best surrogate measure of global standing that we have and they are here to stay, whether we like them or loathe them. </p>
<p>As the aggregate scoreboard for top universities around the globe, ARTU is well placed to track the shake-up from COVID-19 as it plays out in our universities over the next five to ten years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152313/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Fisk is a Board member of Research Australia.
Ian Jacobs is a Board member of the Group of 8 universities and Universities Australia</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Jacobs is a Board member of the Group of Eight (Go8) and Universities Australia.</span></em></p>With 13 universities in the top 200 in the new aggregated ranking system known as ARTU, Australia ranks fourth in the world and is part of a rising new order in the global higher education sector.Nicholas M Fisk, Professor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Enterprise), UNSW SydneyIan Jacobs, Vice Chancellor, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1256582019-10-22T23:34:27Z2019-10-22T23:34:27ZAustralians split on the level of foreign students: ANUpoll<p>Australians are divided over whether the nation’s universities have too many foreign students, according to the Australian National University’s ANUpoll, released Wednesday.</p>
<p>In the polling, 52.8% said the mix between foreign and domestic students was about right, but 46.1% favoured a lower level of foreign students. Only 1.1% wanted a greater proportion of students from overseas.</p>
<p>But there were big differences in attitudes between those who had attended university or were there now, and those who had not.</p>
<p>Of those who had never been to university, 51.3% supported reducing the proportion of foreign students. This fell to 43.6% among those who had previously been to university, and to 25.6% among current students.</p>
<p>Foreign students have become a huge source of income for Australia in general and the universities in particular, but critics are concerned about pressures on the institutions and on standards.</p>
<p>More than 690,000 international students were in Australia on student visas last year, an increase of 11% on the year before. The two largest source countries were China and India.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/students-from-china-may-defend-their-country-but-that-doesnt-make-them-communist-party-agents-124497">Students from China may defend their country but that doesn't make them Communist Party agents</a>
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<p>The ANUpoll – the 29th in its series – also asked about people’s confidence in a range of institutions and occupations.</p>
<p>The results showed people have a great deal more confidence in Australia’s universities and schools and those who staff them than they have in major companies, the public service, the federal government or the press.</p>
<p>Some 78.8% had confidence in universities while the figure for schools was 73.6%. Nearly eight in ten had confidence in university lecturers and school teachers; just over eight in ten expressed confidence in university researchers.</p>
<p>The numbers for other institutions were: the public service 46%; major Australian companies 43.6%; banks and financial institutions 28%; the federal government in Canberra 27%.</p>
<p>The press did worst in the poll, with only 20.2% expressing confidence in it. This dismal rating comes as media organisations are running a high profile campaign to secure greater guarantees for media freedom, in the wake of raids on a News Corp journalist and the ABC.</p>
<p>The survey found some mixed feelings about universities’ teaching.</p>
<p>Asked whether universities were teaching the important things students need to know, 60% agreed they were. This was down from about 66% in 2008 research.</p>
<p>About five in ten thought they were teaching what students need for the current and future workforce.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-international-students-should-mean-more-support-for-communication-and-interaction-39914">More international students should mean more support for communication and interaction</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>In a series of questions about the role of universities, Coalition voters were less supportive than Labor voters of their public policy roles.</p>
<p>On freedom of speech, the poll found nearly nine out of ten people agreed with the proposition that “Australian universities should invite speakers with a variety of ideas and opinions to campus, including speakers whose perspectives are very different from most students”.</p>
<p>Universities are under pressure from the government over freedom of speech issues, and commentators on the right have been strongly critical about some controversial speakers being excluded or their sponsors facing hefty bills for security. </p>
<p>Education Minister Dan Tehan has been driving a free speech code for universities, after a review by former chief justice Robert French. </p>
<p>ANUpoll is conducted for the ANU by the Social Research Centre, an ANU Enterprise business. It is a national poll done via the internet and telephone. 2,054 people were polled in April.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125658/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Foreign students have become a huge source of income for Australia in general and the universities in particular, but critics are concerned about pressures on the institutions and on standards.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/419702015-05-19T20:03:15Z2015-05-19T20:03:15ZBook review: Selling Students Short<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81983/original/image-20150518-25403-xemh5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Selling students short comes at an important time for higher education in Australia: funding uncertainties and questions over academic standards have never been more pronounced. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Richard Hil’s <a href="http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781743318898">Selling Students Short: Why You Won’t Get the Education You Deserve</a> is a timely exposé of the difficult conditions facing students at Australia’s increasingly corporatised universities.</p>
<p>The book is a follow-up to Hil’s <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/whackademia_an-insiders-account-of-the-troubled-university/">Whackademia: An Insider’s Account of the Troubled University</a>. This focused on the perspective of academics struggling to negotiate progressively more burdensome bureaucracies.</p>
<p>Shifting to the “student experience”, Selling Students Short is a companion piece to Whackademia that mirrors one of the National Tertiary Education Union’s <a href="http://www.nteu.org.au/article/NTEU-message-to-students-about-May-21-Strike-16279">consistent refrains</a> from recent industrial action across the country:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our working conditions are your learning conditions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hil’s wit and frequently irreverent tone afford the reader a more pleasurable experience than might be expected given the dire conditions of Australian universities that he details. The situation has largely been brought about by a steady decrease in Commonwealth funding, coupled with a dramatic expansion of student enrolment numbers in recent years. </p>
<p>Large sections of the book are devoted to discussions and interviews Hil conducted with 150 students around the country. It may be tempting to dismiss these accounts on the basis of their anecdotal nature, but readers would be remiss to do so. The focus on student narratives is a welcome antidote to the “empirical drudgery” that pervades “the great student surveyathon”, which Hil argues places far too much faith in metrics and measures of student satisfaction. </p>
<p>One student interviewed by Hil lamented that the federally funded University Experience Survey published in 2014 posed questions that felt like he was “being asked to comment on the quality of a service at a local supermarket”.</p>
<h2>Increasing focus on brand power</h2>
<p>The corporate culture of universities has responded to increased competition with an increasing focus on marketing and brand management. Hil’s chapter on “Brand Power” deftly lampoons some of the more head-scratchingly silly mottos to emerge from costly consultancies. Deakin’s slogan — “We’re not only worldly, we’re world class” — comes in for some deserving rebuke. The glibness of such language pervades many aspects of student life. </p>
<p>One comes away from this chapter with the impression that the marketisation of the student experience is not only an unnecessary and wasteful use of taxpayer money, but is also shabbily executed. More worrisome is that such gimmicks </p>
<blockquote>
<p>seriously debase and trivialise what universities are supposed to be about: teaching, research, scholarship and professional service. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>University managers increasingly refer to students as “consumers” and “clients” without grasping how this language both reflects and reshapes teacher-student relationships in harmful ways. One of the most basic insights that academics in the humanities cultivate in their students is an appreciation for how language is never innocent and neutral. Yet the corporate ethos of universities seems to ignore this. </p>
<p>The overall impression that one gleans from Hil’s book is that academics and students are increasingly expected to follow decisions that come from above. The critical thinking skills that we foster in our teaching and research are to be thrown out the window as soon as they conflict with management imperatives. </p>
<p>For example, the growing shift toward online and “blended learning” has been welcomed by some students for pragmatic reasons. However, Hil’s discussions with students (some of whom had no choice but to study online because of work or family commitments), as well as the academic research that he cites, overwhelmingly show that the majority of students still prefer face-to-face learning. Whether universities will listen to student preference remains to be seen.</p>
<h2>International students</h2>
<p>Hil’s chapter on the international student market also contains a number of first-person narratives from students whose high course fees cross-subsidise those of their domestic counterparts. This chapter is the most disquieting from an ethical point of view. Hil’s conclusion that foreign students are being “fleeced in order to prop up Australia’s teetering university system” is hard to argue with. </p>
<p>That many foreign students possess weak English language skills and find themselves struggling to stay afloat underscores just how exploitative and morally hazardous the international student market has become. This chapter also includes a brief discussion of allegations of fraud and deception in this market. </p>
<p>Hil documents accusations that overseas recruitment agents and other middlemen have coached prospective students to pass English language tests and have doctored credentials. The recent exposé on Four Corners called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4YsjxTgOLk">“Degrees of Deception”</a> and an investigation by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption lend further support to Hil’s findings and have motivated Senator Kim Carr to call for an <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/four-corners-allegations-must-be-investigated-kim-carr/story-e6frgcjx-1227314161161">immediate federal investigation</a>.</p>
<p>Selling Students Short has emerged at an important time in Australian tertiary education. Christopher Pyne’s proposal to deregulate fees has twice failed to pass the Senate. It occupies a notional space in the government’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/pyne-fails-to-deliver-any-surprises-in-the-higher-education-budget-41741">recent budget</a>, but barring either a sudden change of heart among key crossbenchers or a <a href="http://www.afr.com/news/politics/christopher-pyne-plans-election-trigger-20150401-1mcnfo">double dissolution</a>, full fee deregulation seems unlikely. At least in the near future. </p>
<p>As a number of <a href="https://newmatilda.com/2015/05/14/pyne-ignores-elephant-lecture-hall-reactions-higher-ed-budget">commentators</a> have observed, Pyne’s failure to pass fee deregulation has been an unintended gift to the university sector in one crucial respect: it has spawned a long-overdue public debate about the nature and purpose of public higher education, a discussion to which Hil’s book productively contributes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41970/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Peterson is affiliated with The National Alliance for Public Universities</span></em></p>Richard Hil’s Selling Students Short: Why You Won’t Get the Education You Deserve is a timely exposé of the difficult conditions facing students at Australia’s increasingly corporatised universities.Christopher Peterson, Senior Lecturer in American Literature, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/407522015-04-24T04:00:28Z2015-04-24T04:00:28ZBiased reports on international students not helpful<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79204/original/image-20150424-25563-rx8zrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Have cheating and plagiarism increased in universities as a symptom of more international students or just of more students?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Monday’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2015/04/20/4217741.htm">Four Corners episode</a> shed some much-needed light on longstanding problems in our higher education sector. Most importantly, it highlighted the role of some dodgy overseas education agents and the apparent collusion of some universities in fraudulent recruitment schemes for international students. </p>
<p>Pressing questions were raised about the status of academic integrity in the lucrative billion-dollar business, in which Australian universities find themselves under unprecedented pressure to raise revenue. This is in a context of high demand for an Australian education experience by international students and their families.</p>
<p>Throughout this important story thread, unfortunately, the producers seemed unable to resist the siren song of catchy jingoism, parading background shots of nameless Asian students walking through universities while the voiceover spoke of “corruption, widespread plagiarism, cheating and exploitation”. The problems raised are real, but the tone taken does both our universities and our students a grave disservice.</p>
<h2>Universities today, the changed context</h2>
<p>Australian universities consistently perform very strongly in the major international rankings of universities. Many of our institutions quite rightly claim to be “world class”. </p>
<p>Having a strong international reputation means taking part in the international scholarly community. Students from around the world want to come to Australia to study – <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/australias-universities/key-facts-and-data#.VTme5CljqM4">around a quarter of million</a> of them. In the context of shrinking public investment in higher education, the fees these students pay are integral to university budgets.</p>
<p>At the same time as the expansion in international student participation has been taking place, Australia has seen very rapid growth in participation by domestic students. <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/australias-universities/key-facts-and-data#.VTme5CljqM4">Around one million</a> Australians presently attend university – double the number that attended two decades ago. </p>
<p>Local students, too, come from diverse backgrounds. More come from families with no experience of university education, or from families where English is not the main language spoken.</p>
<p>In short, the university is no longer an enclave for a small group of Anglo-Saxon elites brought up in “good families” and having attended “good schools”. When Australian universities go mass and global, diversity becomes inherent. The Four Corners episode ignored this diversity.</p>
<p>Higher education in Australia is now big, diverse and international. Being vigilant in eradicating poor practice when it occurs should not be conflated with hand-wringing that our domestic and international students no longer fit the norms of the “elite” era of higher education.</p>
<h2>Cheaters and the cheated</h2>
<p>Anecdotal evidence about plagiarism is a good example here. The program explicitly drew a link between the surge of overseas students and “the increase in plagiarism”, blaming the rising participation of international students in Australian tertiary education for falling academic standards. </p>
<p>It would be unsurprising if plagiarism was on the increase – more students likely means more cheating, unfortunately. But do international students plagiarise more than locals? Or are perceptions that this is the case simply an effect of increasing participation and better software? It is hard to tell.</p>
<p>One thing is certain though – this kind of practice is a rarity. If plagiarism is indeed widespread in some courses or some institutions, we should be shocked and it is right to call it out. However, we need to be careful in creating the impression, as Four Corners did, that this is some kind of new or predominantly Asian problem.</p>
<p>What was disappointing about the Four Corners episode was the disservice it did to international students by presenting them as either cheats or victims. </p>
<p>International students are a heterogeneous group. Their capacities, aspirations and behaviours as learners ought not to be simplified and stamped with certain stereotypes.</p>
<p>Deakin University education researcher <a href="https://www.academia.edu/11717702/Tran_L._T_forthcoming_._Mobility_as_becoming_A_Bourdieuian_analysis_of_the_factors_shaping_international_student_mobility._British_Journal_of_Sociology_of_Education">Ly Tran</a> conducted semi-structured interviews with 105 international students in 25 vocational education institutions across Australia. She found many aspired to develop their skills and knowledge so that they can advance in their chosen profession and transform their professional self.</p>
<p>The program’s explicit emphasis on depicting international students as strugglers with a mere motive to pass and a threat to the Australian academic standard may subsequently create an incomplete and biased imagining of international students.</p>
<p>Again, the claim that cheating and plagiarism occur is not contentious. That’s why we have double marking and specialised software. But what of the outstanding students that come here to study?</p>
<p>When an employer sees an Asian face on a person holding an Australian degree, should they be asking themselves whether this person falls in the cheat category or the victim category? What an awful disservice to these graduates.</p>
<h2>A better way forward</h2>
<p>The alarming message from the episode to Australian tertiary education is that institutions must think hard and act fast to protect their academic integrity against the temptation of profit-making and from sub-standard, even criminal, practices. But we need to watch out for unnecessary effects on public perceptions and treatment of international students.</p>
<p>The sense of feeling welcome and the sense of belonging to the learning environment and the host society is indispensable to international students’ well-being, their education experience and social integration in a foreign country. </p>
<p>In the cause of protecting and improving the credibility and prestige of Australian education, we must guard against parochial institutional and social stereotypes. These promote hostility to international students, especially the vast majority with genuine capacities and aspirations.</p>
<p>Instead, working on institutional and social conditions to improve understanding of international students’ dreams and struggles, protect their rights and enable these students to contribute to Australian academic integrity is exactly where we should start.</p>
<hr>
<p>Read more of The Conversation’s coverage of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/academic-dishonesty-in-australia">Academic dishonesty in Australia</a> here.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40752/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While Four Corners shed some much-needed light on long-standing problems in higher education, these problems aren’t reserved for international students.Emmaline Bexley, Lecturer in Higher Education, The University of MelbourneThao Vu, PhD Candidate in Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/404642015-04-21T01:19:58Z2015-04-21T01:19:58ZThe slide of academic standards in Australia: a cautionary tale<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78651/original/image-20150420-25705-1efc5cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When thinking about academic standards, it's important to think about the incentives to keep standards high - or low.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-unis-should-take-responsibility-for-corrupt-practices-in-international-education-40380">recent furore</a> about academic standards in Australian higher education – including Monday night’s damning <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2015/04/20/4217741.htm">Four Corners expose</a> – has the potential to bring not only desperately needed attention, but actual change, to the sector. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>Lesson 1: incentives matter</h2>
<p>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 “<em>cui bono?</em>” 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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://theconversation.com/top-ranked-universities-have-more-money-than-australian-unis-could-dream-of-39189">precious little endowment</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/university-balance-sheets-tell-us-only-some-are-right-to-cry-poor-37093">alumni-sourced revenue</a> – 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. </p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78656/original/image-20150420-25721-esd8a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78656/original/image-20150420-25721-esd8a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78656/original/image-20150420-25721-esd8a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78656/original/image-20150420-25721-esd8a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78656/original/image-20150420-25721-esd8a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78656/original/image-20150420-25721-esd8a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78656/original/image-20150420-25721-esd8a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78656/original/image-20150420-25721-esd8a4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What do school leavers look for in a university? Student experience, job readiness, or academic rigour?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>Lesson 2: academia is defined by academics</h2>
<p>Notwithstanding the protestations of teaching and learning administrators, academic standards cannot be perfectly pinned down in assessment rubrics or statements of learning objectives. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>This means that academics are ultimately the only valid institutional store of knowledge about what academic standards should be. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78653/original/image-20150420-25725-9azruu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78653/original/image-20150420-25725-9azruu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78653/original/image-20150420-25725-9azruu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78653/original/image-20150420-25725-9azruu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78653/original/image-20150420-25725-9azruu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78653/original/image-20150420-25725-9azruu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78653/original/image-20150420-25725-9azruu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78653/original/image-20150420-25725-9azruu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Academics are really the only ones who can say what academic standards should be.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>The policy response</h2>
<p>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 <a href="http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/testingstudentanduniversityperformancegloballyoecdsahelo.htm">Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes in the UK</a>). </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78654/original/image-20150420-25711-1t2aoc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78654/original/image-20150420-25711-1t2aoc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78654/original/image-20150420-25711-1t2aoc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78654/original/image-20150420-25711-1t2aoc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78654/original/image-20150420-25711-1t2aoc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78654/original/image-20150420-25711-1t2aoc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78654/original/image-20150420-25711-1t2aoc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78654/original/image-20150420-25711-1t2aoc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Make students surveys compulsory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/3475417696/in/photolist-6i7qAL-dXTThm-k4LmDT-aFeJrf-cVmRf7-dQFZHk-cVmSaw-54biY7-9sFaaD-fPavA9-fFs1k-fFs9g-fFsiL-fFsfh-fFs5T-fFsh4-fFsbn-fFs76-fFs3e-fFsds-6iiZGo-89ofQY-9QYkgL-athJTp-6Mnnm1-boQV57-bBKQzc-Ps5Bk-4pnff5-bu5HVP-bu5KyR-bu5JYp-jrP5xy-bu5Jtt-ati1uT-k4KmQB-pQBCjN-mXzciZ-7fnnJw-9REi7J-4EjVBt-99smVp-9qVPap-tKe8X-o75fzC-7YzmZM-km18x7-doQhEj-7XKwwh-ffN5Ti">Ed Yourdan/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Commonwealth-sponsored <a href="http://disciplinestandards.pbworks.com/w/page/52657697/FrontPage">National Discipline Standards in Australia project</a>, which taps selected professionals from across the country to develop explicit statements of academic standards in different fields (such as <a href="http://www.economicslearningstandards.com/index.html">economics</a>), falls under this heading. Without wide adoption by academics and embedding in university departments, however, such standards have a hollow ring to them.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>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.</p></li>
<li><p>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.</p></li>
<li><p>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.</p></li>
<li><p>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 <a href="http://www.modern-cynic.org/2013/05/08/university-leaders/">large salaries to university bureaucrats</a> with <a href="http://economics.com.au/?p=9696">questionable academic credentials</a>. 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.</p></li>
</ol>
<hr>
<p>Read more of The Conversation’s coverage of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/academic-dishonesty-in-australia">Academic dishonesty in Australia</a> here.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40464/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gigi Foster receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She was a member of the national Office of Learning and Teaching-sponsored working party on the project entitled "Embedding and benchmarking core knowledge and skills as the foundation for learning standards in the undergraduate economics curriculum".</span></em></p>The recent furore about academic standards in Australian higher education – including Monday’s damning Four Corners expose – has the potential to bring not only desperately needed attention, but actual change, to the sector.Gigi Foster, Associate Professor, School of Economics, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/370932015-04-20T20:13:29Z2015-04-20T20:13:29ZUniversity balance sheets tell us only some are right to cry poor<p>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. </p>
<p>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 <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/unis-warn-financial-surplus-inflated/story-e6frgcjx-1227306746651">not to be fooled by surpluses on the balance sheet</a>. So is the financial situation really as dire as they say, as rosy as their <a href="https://theconversation.com/drawing-positives-from-negatives-looking-back-at-the-higher-education-reforms-38890">detractors</a> say, or somewhere in between?</p>
<h2>Australia’s universities – where are we at?</h2>
<p>In February, the University of South Australia’s David Lloyd <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/uni-vc-warns-of-funding-chaos/story-fn59nlz9-1227209716608">bemoaned the policy and funding chaos</a> he has found since moving to Australia from Ireland. However, the University of Canberra’s Stephen Parker <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-16/parker-uni-deregulation-ideological-motives-laid-bare/6323014">sees the funding system</a> as pretty good.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-24/murdoch-vice-chancellor-in-corrupt-investigation-resigns/5840806">organisational woes</a> coincided with a steep decline in its financial fortunes.</p>
<p>Digging a little deeper, <a href="http://www.murdoch.edu.au/About-us/Annual-report/_document/2014-Annual-Report/2014-Annual-Report.pdf">Murdoch’s results</a> were primarily driven by higher costs, static revenues and lower investment returns.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>All universities make up the difference primarily from student fees. Much of this comes from international students and domestic postgraduates – the majority of whom study in the increasingly contested business, commerce and economics fields.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>Winners and losers?</h2>
<p>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?</p>
<p><br></p>
<iframe src="https://d3602hfvnbc5pq.cloudfront.net/5tcu1/2/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="560"></iframe>
<p>What is clear from the above table is that generalisations are hard to make. No one grouping of universities seems to doing better than any other.</p>
<p>It is clear that those most impacted by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/learning-from-victorias-tafe-mistakes-34646">problems in Victoria’s vocational education and training system</a>, dual-sector institutions Victoria University and Swinburne, are struggling. </p>
<p>Monash is doing well – but much of its surplus is driven by one-off investment gains. <a href="https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/179715/annual-report-2014.pdf">Its annual report stated:</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>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 had good student growth, with limited increases in staffing costs. </p>
<p>It will be important to monitor if such financial success comes at a longer-term cost to research performance and community engagement.</p>
<p><br></p>
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<p></p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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 that relies heavily on international students enrolments and uncertain future funding arrangements.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37093/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Rice works for the University of New England, however the views expressed in this article are his own. He is a member of the NTEU and the ALP. He has previously received funding from the ARC, ALTC and the Centre for Work Life at the University of Melbourne. He previously held an executive management role at the National Centre for Vocational Education Research, a government funded agency.</span></em></p>With the release of some universities’ annual reports over the last few weeks we’re able to see how the universities are really faring. Is the financial situation really as dire as vice-chancellors say, as rosy as their detractors say, or somewhere in between?John Rice, Professor of Management, University of New EnglandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/403802015-04-20T11:21:29Z2015-04-20T11:21:29ZAustralian unis should take responsibility for corrupt practices in international education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78546/original/image-20150420-3238-14d7jnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">International students provide universities with a large chunk of their revenue - but at what cost?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/44534236@N00/4730575439">Faungg/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>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 href="http://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/article/4781">a new report from the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption says</a>. </p>
<p>From 1988-2014, the number of international students at Australian universities <a href="http://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/article/4781">increased 13-fold</a>. These students now comprise 18% of the student population in NSW universities, and often exceed 25%. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/article/4781">range of corruption issues</a> 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.</p>
<p>It is <a href="http://arrow.monash.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/monash:64104?collection=monash%253A63642">widely known by all stakeholders in the sector</a> 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. </p>
<p>It is also widely known that international students are burdened with additional pressures relating to culture, finance, family and peer groups. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78563/original/image-20150420-7631-h3wkj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78563/original/image-20150420-7631-h3wkj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78563/original/image-20150420-7631-h3wkj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78563/original/image-20150420-7631-h3wkj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78563/original/image-20150420-7631-h3wkj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78563/original/image-20150420-7631-h3wkj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78563/original/image-20150420-7631-h3wkj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78563/original/image-20150420-7631-h3wkj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The My Master cheating scandal uncovered a website international students were using to purchase essays.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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 <a href="http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=334865480475401;res=IELHSS">often have inadequate English or poor educational preparation</a>. 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.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/mymaster-essay-cheating-scandal-more-than-70-university-students-face-suspension-20150318-1425oe.html">media have been at the forefront</a> in exposing cheating and plagiarism scandals by international students. The <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-university-to-crack-down-on-cheating-following-mymaster-investigation-20150413-1mju3q.html">recent MyMaster investigation</a> revealed the widespread use of cheat sites. In this case, Chinese students could purchase ready-made essays on a given topic. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The recently released <a href="http://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/article/4781">ICAC NSW report</a> has turned its attention to the role of universities in enabling and facilitating corrupt practices. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>The report says competition for international students has led universities to:</p>
<ul>
<li>aggressively market for international students without considering the associated costs and risks </li>
<li>set inappropriately low English language requirements</li>
<li>rely on largely unregulated agents with inducements to submit applications from insufficiently qualified students or, worse, to submit fraudulent applications</li>
<li>establish offshore partnerships without the necessary due diligence </li>
<li>set recruitment KPIs, reinforced by financial incentives, with no accountability for quality or resulting pressures on academic workloads</li>
<li>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.</li>
</ul>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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</p>
<blockquote>
<p>created by a university’s reliance on revenues from international students who struggle to meet the academic standards of the university that recruited them. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>These revolve around relationships with partners and agents, marketing and financial strategies, risk, due diligence, accountability of international offices, governance strategies and admissions. </p>
<p>While no specific “initiative” was provided in relation to setting minimum English language requirements, this issue underpinned the whole report. It notes that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>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. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is evident that universities ignore this fact at their peril.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>ICAC has provided a number of useful recommendations. These make clear the responsibility of universities, not students, for rectifying these issues.</p>
<hr>
<p>Read more of The Conversation’s coverage of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/academic-dishonesty-in-australia">Academic dishonesty in Australia</a> here.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40380/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tracey Bretag is affiliated with the International Center for Academic Integrity, as the President of the Executive Board. Tracey Bretag has received funding from the Australian Office for Learning and Teaching for the Exemplary Academic Integrity Project and the Academic Integrity Standards Project.</span></em></p>A new report from the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption says Australian universities have become increasingly reliant on income from fee-paying international students, and is letting academic standards slide for the valuable income stream.Tracey Bretag, Senior Lecturer, School of Management, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/399142015-04-20T05:01:23Z2015-04-20T05:01:23ZMore international students should mean more support for communication and interaction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77740/original/image-20150413-10567-1adoljt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The number of international students at Australian universities has increased significantly in the past decade</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-232675072/stock-photo-happy-group-of-students-sitting-at-the-park-talking.html?src=pp-same_model-232675069-1&ws=1">Group of students from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A national <a href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/research-papers/Documents/ISS%202014%20Report%20Final.pdf">survey of international students</a> has just been released by Education Minister Christopher Pyne, stating the reputation of our institutions is the number one factor in attracting international students to Australia. </p>
<p>Australia has been very successful in attracting international students. We are the envy of many other countries that seek to match and surpass this success. International education varies between Australia’s <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/5368.0.55.004">third and fourth major export</a> and we need to maintain this growth to sustain our share of the market. </p>
<p>While Australian universities have been successful in attracting international students, more needs to be done to ensure institutions can adapt to increased numbers of international students in classrooms.</p>
<p>The wellbeing, satisfaction and academic success of international students are major priorities for the Australian higher education sector. A <a href="http://fyhe.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/FYE-2014-FULL-report-FINAL-web.pdf">recent study</a> by the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education investigated the attitudes and experiences of first-year students in universities. </p>
<p>It supported the results of today’s international student survey in finding that first-year international students were generally satisfied with their university experience. </p>
<p>However, international students were less satisfied than local students with the quality of teaching and were more likely to feel that university had not lived up to their expectations. The study also found that international students experience more difficulties with their studies, compared with local students. </p>
<p>These findings point to the challenges that universities face. In particular, universities have had to improve English language programs and provide better academic support services. A major challenge lies in assessing the English language skills of university students within their course of study.</p>
<h2>Who are our international students?</h2>
<p>The number of international students in Australian higher education <a href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/Research-Snapshots/Documents/International%20Student%20Numbers%202014.pdf">has increased</a> from around 35,000 in 1994 to over 236,000 in 2014. Australia attracts international students from 191 countries. </p>
<p>The largest group is from China - around 36% of all international students in Australian universities. India and Vietnam round out the top three countries for international students. Six of the top ten source countries are in Asia.</p>
<p>Research <a href="http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/research/experience/docs/FindingCommonGround_web.pdf">has indicated</a> time and again that international students are a very diverse group of learners, just as local learners are. The international-local divide is a false dichotomy that is full of assumptions and half-truths. It supports the view that somehow international students are a problem to teach in universities but that local students are not. This is an incorrect assumption. </p>
<h2>Many international students have English language problems</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77744/original/image-20150413-10562-1lm5wlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77744/original/image-20150413-10562-1lm5wlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77744/original/image-20150413-10562-1lm5wlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77744/original/image-20150413-10562-1lm5wlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77744/original/image-20150413-10562-1lm5wlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77744/original/image-20150413-10562-1lm5wlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77744/original/image-20150413-10562-1lm5wlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">English language programs are often under-resourced.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-76504753/stock-photo-a-shot-of-an-asian-student-studying-on-campus-lawn.html?src=eLfs63iw1Su6YcHu4NGL2A-1-61">Student studying on campus from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many students, both local and international, encounter difficulties in writing at a university level. As <a href="http://www.graduatecareers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Graduate_Outlook_2013.pdf">employer surveys</a> continue to show, high English language skills are important for all graduates, not just international students.</p>
<p>The increased number of international students has meant that universities have had to develop better approaches to support all students who struggle with their English. Universities have tried to address these issues by introducing foundation subjects in first-year undergraduate courses, which develop students’ language skills and offer English language support classes. Some progress has been made, but more needs to be done. </p>
<p>Research <a href="http://www.ielts.org/PDF/Vol10_Report3.pdf">indicates</a> that academics believe they are ill-equipped to deal with teaching English language in their classrooms. Most English language programs are under-resourced and operate outside of subject teaching. Practices can be disjointed and not connected to assessment within subjects.</p>
<p>We need to include English language in the assessment of university subjects. Without this, it is difficult for universities to know their graduates have the necessary levels of English language communication for employment. </p>
<p>At the very least this would minimise the risk of developing a negative perception of the quality of Australian graduates. This can only be good for the international reputation of Australian universities and for attracting international students. </p>
<h2>What have universities done to assist interaction?</h2>
<p>The presence of large numbers of international students offers many opportunities for local students to interact with students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. While social integration between local and international students <a href="http://fyhe.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/FYE-2014-FULL-report-FINAL-web.pdf">has increased</a> over the last ten years, significant improvements can still be made in this area. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77750/original/image-20150413-10544-nzxic9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77750/original/image-20150413-10544-nzxic9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77750/original/image-20150413-10544-nzxic9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77750/original/image-20150413-10544-nzxic9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77750/original/image-20150413-10544-nzxic9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77750/original/image-20150413-10544-nzxic9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/77750/original/image-20150413-10544-nzxic9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Universities face a challenge to improve engagement between local and international students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-106380047/stock-photo-group-of-students-studying-together-at-the-library.html?src=pp-same_model-106380008-4VG3BSpV3AwHU0xhRxXX8g-2&ws=1">Students studying from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>International students want to engage with local students. Research <a href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/Publications/Documents/2012%20ISS%20Overview%20Report_PDF_Web%20version_FINAL.pdf">shows</a> they seek to make Australian friends. </p>
<p>Part of the difficulty for some international students is that they can find themselves in classrooms full of students from the same country as them. This tends to occur in business and management courses, which have the largest numbers of international students, mainly from China.</p>
<p>Another challenge is that many local students have fewer opportunities to socialise with international students. The <a href="http://fyhe.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/FYE-2014-FULL-report-FINAL-web.pdf">First Year Experience study</a> shows that local students are spending less time on campus compared to students ten years ago. One of the main reasons is work. </p>
<p>Universities try to create opportunities for students to engage with each other. Some of the initiatives include transition programs, common foundation subjects in undergraduate degrees, and group work. Universities have also invested in purpose-built learning spaces designed to promote collaborative learning and peer engagement.</p>
<p>Guidelines for designing curriculum and promoting student interaction have also been developed to assist academics. These are being used to redesign teaching so that international and local students can reap the benefits of engaging with each other. This is important for local students, who need to develop these skills for working in the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/asian-century-white-paper-experts-respond-10370">Asian century</a>”. </p>
<p>While these are all steps in the right direction, more needs to be done to ensure international students are getting the most out of what they are paying for. Better programs need to be put in place to make sure these students have the requisite communication skills to not only finish their degrees, but be employable once they have.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39914/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophie Arkoudis receives funding from the Australian Government.</span></em></p>More needs to be done to ensure international students have proficiency in English and can make local friends.Sophie Arkoudis, Associate Professor in higher education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.