Cash Cows: Australian universities making billions out of international students | Four Corners

[Music] Australia's education industry is booming it's now our third largest export behind iron ore and coal Australia is one of the most successful international educators particularly in its universities in the world universities are admitting foreign students in record numbers how do you think universities view international students look of course they are the cash cows there is no doubt about it but there's another story behind the success how frequently a University's waving English language requirements I would say that it's not all universities but there are there are definitely large numbers of universities still which waive English language requirements admitting students who don't have the right prerequisites are correct language capabilities is setting them up for failure this is just not what a university should do that's not what education is about I was getting large piles of folders with academic misconduct cases in them and the numbers just kept going up and up and out and so I started to ask people what's going on I think it's a train wreck I think it's coming and it's coming hard and the incoming government is gonna have to deal with some pretty serious welfare concerns tonight on four corners we investigate how Australia's higher education system is being undermined and we reveal the risks that some universities are taking to cash in on foreign students [Music] [Music] it's orientation week at Australia's oldest University this year more than a third of Sydney University students will come from overseas Sydney it's a beautiful place pleasure it's very like multicultural a lot of diversity you get a good exposure globally so that's why I selected selfie plus it's in here to my place like more near to India around the country universities make more than seven billion dollars a year from international student fees [Music] the bulk of that money goes to the education and the running of the university to make that education successful and of high quality and it goes to in part to support the whole endeavor of universities so it also supports what we do more generally and universities in Australia through education and research and so those international students are contributing to the whole fabric of the University and its success in the future [Music] universities have suffered more than two billion dollars in funding cuts our public funding has been contracting at a furious rate so universities in that situation do two things they cut costs and they're seeking some streams obviously the income stream that is most commonly sought his international students my name is Jan and did you work in Australia I'm maybe the day before yesterday yeah study the interaction design interaction design yeah say the wonderful state yes charming yeah I love weather is so hot but but it's the sunshine is really good yeah good day it's true today yeah most of Australia's foreign students come from China but in the last three years there's been a massive increase in students coming from South Asia my name is kshitij I'm from India as well geppu so I'm studying my self ID and ID management here since 2015 the number of student enrollments from India has more than doubled from neighboring Nepal growth has jumped by a staggering 132 percent those numbers are just huge red flags around the concern we should be having for the students themselves but for those who are influencing those decisions to come to Australia so whether it's the agents or whether it's the institution's themselves and their ability to determine the actual credibility of those students and the long-term outcomes that those students are likely or even able to achieve international students are sold on a promise of being part of an Australian lifestyle at a university campus it's just the best place to come I feel coming to uni makes me happy but the reality the some is very different what did the classes like so far are there many Australian students no we have international students there are more Sri Lankans Indians nicholae Nepalese so we're a bit disappointed we are not able to communicate or get in touch with local people and moreover interacting with the local lights makes it easy to understand Australian culture regional University Southern Cross has set up city campuses catering exclusively to foreign students if there isn't a diversity of students in the class it really impacts their future career as well on how they want to grow in that particular field because people come to Australia to have that Australian experience and it's very important to have that balance of Australian and international students otherwise they wouldn't have this Australian experience you know central Queensland University also has city campuses for overseas students I mean other than myself information technology and why did you choose central Queensland University there's a lot of you know in today's but friend of mines adjusted me you could go for say to you it's good you could do your period better like I chose you a lot of opportunities facing Queens line in another state no no one is domestic student in our classes what some people from India yeah communication with them and to get an experience local culture how do you think universities view international students look of course they are the cash cows there is no doubt about it [Music] Australia's student visa system underwent a major overhaul in 2016 the changes simplified the process and gave universities the power to assess the suitability of students before they were granted visas higher education institutions came to the government a number of years back and said we're a good standing and you should be able to trust our ability to recruit the right kinds of students we should be able to assess the English capability of the student the Immigration Department doesn't need to be involved in that and that was largely accepted by the government that was a very positive set of changes that we're happy to have it's probably meant as well that universities have a bit more work to do in terms of the streamlined visa processing because more of the work that was involved in being responsible for making sure that visa conditions are met came to universities the universities now had responsibility for checking whether applicants would genuine students this is where there was a little bit of a conflict of interest because the adversity interest is in getting the students but here the process required the university to some of that other role Ravi Lochan Singh represents the Indian Education agents who were paid by universities to bring students to Australia sometimes when you put in a visa application you could get a visa grant within minutes or within a very short period of time and that means there has not been a human interference in the visa process the system by itself has granted a visa and it happens quite a bit and is that a good system I don't know because in the recent years we've had students with very poor English landing up in Australia which wouldn't have happened earlier had there been a human element in the visa process under the new system universities can waive their own English entry standards and accept students who haven't taken an independent English test how frequently a university is waiving English language requirements I would say that it's not all universities but there are there are definitely large numbers of universities still in which way the English language requirements their higher education standards that we have to adhere to in order to be accredited as universities and they are administered by the tertiary education quality and standards agency and it actually reviews us against those on a regular cycle at the start of the academic year in Western Australia international students have come to the governor's residence for an official welcome [Music] we have virtually every country that send students here represented in our own population then and the fact that universities are first class waa wants to increase the number of international students to 100,000 by 2025 the quality of the education you'll get here in Western Australia is as good as any you'll get anywhere in the world the state's top uni bosses are here to welcome the latest international student recruits the thing I like most about studying in Murdock is the professionalism of courses Murdoch University in Perth has an ambitious strategy to increase international student numbers two years ago it was struggling with a five million dollar deficit its staff meetings we were regularly tired that our financial position was unsustainable and that change was necessary so there's very little doubt that the growth in international student numbers was a desired outcome to rectify the budget position Murdoch's international director Suzanne Smith was recruited in 2017 to drive up the number of international students permission to go to India and Nepal this video appeared on the Facebook page of Murdoch University's Indian student recruitment agent always CC one of the key markets Murdoch was targeting was the Punjab region in India where OS EC had a number of offices and ruder Stern is the former head of the immigration departments visa integrity division in India he's now a private consultant to the industry for Australia that the Punjab still represents a high-risk environment there are still many very good students and well qualified students from from Punjab as as other states however it's had a a long history of sending its residents out overseas to see residents in first world countries so a long history of doing that and there's a strong industry within the state and there are a few other states in India that have this problem who will use whatever means they can to achieve a visa outcome Murdoch's pushed to recruit students from the Punjab started ringing alarm bells a senior higher education advisor sent a warning to Murdoch's admission staff I would not recommend or ECC as they rely heavily on Punjab the application that you will get will be from the sub agents who are from Punjab the process is also not in place another warning came from a former immigration official I have also heard from a credible source that ovcc have been selling off awareness in Punjab if this were to happen with a Murdock of a letter it would crave leaders the reputation that Murdoch University are trying to build extracting a fee for offer letter sounds very odd picker firstly or the universities compensate the agents for the services that are that are offered now what happens sometimes is that certain education agents might double dip that means they might charge a fee to a student - in addition to charging the University some of Murdoch's admission staff were also concerned about the quality of the students Oh ACC was targeting one staff member wrote the Facebook page is quite telling in their modus operandi I have taken screenshots of some of the posts which appear to target students who were married previously refused and low level of English they passed on warning to the deputy vice-chancellor international OSE C specifically target high-risk students with few other options their business model is apparently to extract a fee from students for offer letters we thought you should be aware of the outcome of the due diligence immigration despite the warnings in 2017 o ACC was granted a one-year contract with Murdoch admission staff started receiving requests to admit some students with low and English standards could we place provides this student with a direct letter of offer the deputy vice-chancellor international has approved waiving the English attached is a list of English applications I've looked at with a view to see if there are some waivers we can make the admissions staff were worried I think we really need to sort this constant stream of English waivers out and simply amend the entry requirements if that's the direction Murdock University once needs to go they sounded the alarm to university management this is a Bachelor of business applicant who has previously had to visa refusals due to genuine temporary entrant and fraudulent claims we now are providing a full offer with an English waiver we have had situations where applicants have not met entry through one agent and then subsequently have shopped around to OE CC and then been offered admission this sort of operation poses not only a compliance risk but a reputational risk to the University [Music] four corners has learned admission staff started a secret dossier with the details of more than 200 student applications which they believed did not meet the university's standards they were worried some were not genuine students and others had scored below the University's English requirements admitting students who don't have the right prerequisites or correct language capabilities is setting them up for failure this is just not what a university should don't that's not what education is about in January 2018 a-w a government official warned Murdoch that lowering English standards could allow the use of student visas as a backdoor entry into Australia I've learned from my sources that murdoch have become very generous and will be waving off english language requirement they will use your english waiver just to get a visa indention will be something else couple of waa institutions do the same but burn their hands [Music] murdock is not alone in recruiting students with English scores below their published entry requirements four corners has obtained evidence showing the University of Tasmania and Southern Cross University are also advertising English waivers there are students onshore in Australia who have not managed to complete even the first semester of studies and have managed to come here on a visa and then after a semester they're legally allowed to move so so in a way I believe it's a shortcut into Australia so it's an immigration workaround I think there's a loophole yeah and that loophole is known to all parties know it no University today can say that they are not aware of what's happening at Murdoch University the recruitment drive continued hi ladies I'm happy to approve overtime or additional support as it's important to our future as a university to maximise our numbers to try and reduce our deficit at the start of last year more than 680 international students arrived at Murdoch's Perth campus a 92 percent increase on the previous year two-thirds of the students were from India staff quickly saw the consequences that's your first assignment many students seem to be unable to understand instructions or understand the material that was put in front of them and there were also cases of students who apparently didn't understand how to use a computer in any sophisticated way so even logging on was a struggle for some students and there were also stories about students not recognizing what a USB stick was and other incidents which you would not expect to see from students who have an IT degree I've spent five years as a consultant these three Murdoch academics are so concerned about what's been happening at the University they've decided to go public I'm not against international students in fact I'm for international students but I have concerns about how we're dealing with it associate professor GERD Schroeder Turk is the staff elected representative to the university's governing body known as the Senate I've got very serious ethical concerns about the way the practices that we are applying in the international student recruitment space and I'm concerned both about the welfare of the students and the well-being of the students as well as about the academic integrity or the problems related to academic integrity that result from this dr. Duncan Farrow and Professor Graham Hawking both investigates student academic misconduct by mid last year they saw a sudden increase I was getting large piles of folders with academic misconduct cases in them and the numbers just kept going up and up and up and so I started to ask people what's going on it was clear that a lot of these misconduct cases were from one cohort of students this particular group of Indian students a lot of the cases were plagiarism or collusion which is copying from each other and then submitting as separate assignments their level of English particularly written English was very poor and in some cases they seem to not understand the process that they were going through in terms of there's academic misconduct four-corners can reveal there were more than 100 misconduct cases in the School of Engineering NIT in first semester last year many were from the Masters of IT course over 60% of the students failed at least one of their four units that they'd taken and 14 percent had passed no units at all how are you Shirley's done for a postgraduate degree for our international cohort students it's extremely unusual you would normally expect to pass just a penny everybody the impact was also felt by domestic students Daniel Manganiello was enrolled in the Masters of IT at Murdoch in 2018 at the end of that first week we have our tutorials first tutorials of the week and I get in and we sit down and we get put into groups and we're told you know this is your group for the semester you're gonna be working with these people for the entire semester and it was me and eight internationals students all from the same place and are all speaking their native language to each other and I was sitting there I was like this is gonna be really bad after the first week he decided to drop out when I was doing my undergraduate we did have a couple of international students come through and I worked with them and they were absolutely amazing I don't think there's a vetting process anymore of like getting those international students in they have a main problem is the language barrier Jackson Kitson and his friend Nancy studied another Murdoch IT course last year some students I really worried about them struggling because like for example in one week a semester I had to explain to my group of international students what the word policy meant and I was worried at that point on my you know it's people are studying a master's in IT that's a very difficult thing to do it requires a lot of you know critical and academic thinking in English and if you don't have a firm grasp on the language you know has a bit worried about how they progressed moving forward in their course when we have to meet a group with others domestic students and the Internet's room the most problem is a communication gap how would you describe how the English was for some of the students some are best some are better and some are worst I would do my best to make sure that the team would understand the topic each week and then I would get them to send to me what they had written and I would try and rephrase it into more readable English the academics say welfare issues have increased as students struggle with a multitude of challenges I get the sense that there's a high expectation from home for them being sent here and there's general hardships are being separated from family many of them are separated from partners some of them from children some of them of course I don't have a great English so they're not finding it difficult to live outside of the university and just get on with normal sorts of things that we take for granted for a great many international students their entire family's financial future is invested in succeeding in their education and when they're under pressure that failure is just not an option for them in April 20 18 an internal staff newsletter reported the number of emergency cases at Murdoch's counseling service had more than doubled in a year the counseling service were trying to take on more people because they felt they're understaffed because they were having a lot of students come and talk to them about these sorts of issues sort of start to be in an impossible place where you have to balance your concern for the student for the student mental health the student welfare the student well-being and indeed the student happiness with the requirements of course of course upholding the academic standards and the academic integrity of your course during the middle of the year break I was sitting in the library doing some work having a coffee and I looked outside and there was a growing line of students clearly from India and it was the new enrollments for the second semester and my heart sank because I was thinking well there were major issues and now we have more and I'm not sure maybe they were all fine but I was very worried about what would happen in after that and I was quite depressed about what the future hold for those students last year Murdoch's staff lodged a series of complaints to their superiors between me and my colleagues we have raised concerns about these issues in almost all relevant university committees I can only at this point in time to show you that I have raised my concerns in all the forums that I was able to raise they mean I'm putting it so I sent a letter outlining all the issues and I was told that there had been no change to the entrance requirements that the number of waivers of our entrance requirements was like three or four and that there and that therefore there was actually no problem with international students they don't need to worry about a few weeks later we the staff were sent an email saying there was no problem with Indian students that it was a problem of staff not understanding the cultural difference and that we should all be perhaps doing cultural awareness training which is more than mildly offensive to people have been teaching international students for twenty or thirty years I was having trouble reconciling a statement that says there's no problem because there's been no change in their insurance requirements with the actual students that we were dealing with on the ground associate professors Schroeder Turk lodged a detailed complaint to the University's Chancellor there has been a preliminary review in to some meta that included international student recruitment and as I understand that review was conducted by a barista and as the vice-chancellor has informed us that review found no adverse findings against any staff member at Murdoch University I think this element of whether our practices are ethical or not is a far harder question to investigate and it's one that requires a much more honest discourse then the question whether or not there is a former this former misconduct we held a meeting of members in September 2018 to discuss the issues around international students when we became aware that Murdoch was conducting a preliminary review and over 100 members came to that meeting and they spoke about the things that that we all know happen with international students a very significant increase in the number of students many of the students with inadequate English skills to be able to adequately pass the unit's many with cultural adjustment problems and staff right across the university at workload the workload point where they can't provide the help that they need in a statement Murdoch University said it maintains admission standards consistent with national standards for international students along with English language requirements in line with those across the sector it said a small number of students required guidance and additional support to maintain the university's academic conduct standards and that this was fewer than 0.5 percent of all our students the university said its international students are equipped and supported for their studies academics that other universities are also worried about the impact of the growing number of foreign students [Music] some of the international student do research and some of them are quite good but the sort of course the course that I was teaching as part of the master's course and I just felt that these people weren't up to it then the university didn't care lecturer Charles Reichman founded the postgraduate construction law course at Swinburne University over perhaps 60 to 65% were overseas students and as the number of overseas students increase plagiarism increased what do you think was driving that what was driving it is that people were recruited to the course and they weren't capable of doing the work that was required for the course so they saw that as a way out after he saw the number of plagiarism cases rise to unprecedented levels in 2018 he raised the matter with university management there was one student who in my view I had absolutely no doubt at all it was plagiarism and he said to me look this student denies that could you mark this paper and I said no I'm not gonna mark this paper and he asked me again I said look I can't I can't mark a paper where I had absolutely no doubt that it's plagiarism so you've received this email they're praising you for your work less than two weeks before the start of semester this year Charles Reichman was told he wasn't needed anymore what was your reaction to that ah it made me feel very very disappointed but in a way I also felt that I would be expecting this since I raised the issue of plagiarism they paid a lot of money to do a course they weren't told look you need these skills to be able to do these course so they found themselves what do I do I can't cope with this and why do you think the university wasn't keen to address the problems don't lose a lot of customers in a statement Swinburne University strongly denied it condones plagiarism it said mr. reichman's departure followed a course review and was unrelated to the concerns he had raised so in terms of attracting students in terms of retaining students in terms of sustaining the growth of internationalist children associate professor sharif a saber is the founding director of the Masters of Business Program at RMIT University in Melbourne he set up this group for international business students because he was worried they were isolated from the Australian community when you studying at a postgraduate level 95 percent of people whom you interact would be from your own countries or maybe not not exactly Australia Australia I think to have international students in Australia is a delight as an academic it is a it is good for us because we learn a lot of things from them associate professor a saber says he's seeing an increasing number of international students struggle many of those students are still cannot speak or write or communicate well enough within the classroom and with their teachers as well so we want students and sometimes we don't really put a lot of preconditions on them and we see the variation within the classroom that some students are good some students are not so good and as teachers it is challenging to manage that class some students are under enormous pressure they have pressure for money because they need to do work and some of them cannot even complete their programs complete their degrees and that is a worry for themselves and for their family it is a stressful time for them and those kind of stress could take them to any end for some students the pressure to succeed has become too much in January this year a Victorian coroner's court investigation found 27 international students had died by suicide in six years in that state alone when students mentioned in Emma's self-harm when students open up over issues of extreme financial distress when students tell you about their concerns of not having their family with them then you do get very worried and young people or all people but young people who are out of their comfort zone are vulnerable and of course you get worried of course why do this struggle here they struggle because either they don't have the financial means to study here and Libya or they struggle because they don't have the English skills to live here and in both these cases with the Lord suspend level of universities those universities were able to waive or apply their own yardsticks universities around the country are celebrating their success Australia is on track to become the second most popular destination for international students in the world why is being incredibly successful at what you do our problem I don't think we should be apologetic about being incredibly successful [Applause] there is overall evidence that in fact the system holds up it has good entry standards it has good standards in terms of what it takes to successfully complete a degree and there is evidence that we are admitting students who are able to succeed at about the rate that is really right for for having a high quality education system in Australia the Standards Agency Texa told four-corners there's little evidence to suggest compliance problems with English language requirements there are students who wouldn't be able to write an assignment on their own there are students who would study into a program wouldn't understand anything I feel a little lost as to what they will get at the end of the year what's going to happen they will fail the subjects and what's going to happen in the end is they'll fail the program they'll come non-complying there are too many students coming without the requisite capabilities whether that's English whether that's academics whether that's financial capacity to maintain themselves in Australia the tolerance level is too low in my opinion I think the credibility of the program itself the international brand of Australian education has to set the benchmark fairly high such that you know very few come in who are not qualified and credible students [Music] in two years Murdoch University has turned a five million dollar deficit into a 15 million dollar surplus I would say at the moment the University and by that I mean the senior people in university riding a wave of not euphoria but happiness about the the income being generated by these international students towards the end of 2018 staff were informed that a bonus payment of $1,000 would be made to all eligible staff that statement made it clear that this was due to the improved financial position of the university and it was also made clear that this was as a reward for loyalty I have expressed my moral concerns about our practices in international recruitment which are the biggest driver in our improved budget position and I also don't like being rewarded for loyalty so I declared that payment so what are you well putting at risk to speak out about this publicly today well ultimately I think I'm putting my career at risk so the potential exists to be to lose your job as a result of this have decided that for me in this case you know the integrity of Murdoch University and the integrity of the Australian tertiary educational system is more important than where I earn my money tertiary education is really about educating the next generation of students who will make a difference to society and this is a very sensitive product education it is one that's about bringing up young people and preparing them for making big contributions to society and we need to be very careful in that space to make sure that we do it in an ethical and moral way and in one that's best for everyone [Music] you

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 863,546

Keywords: Australia, international students, university, student exchange, study abroad, australian universities, higher education, exchange student, student visa, academics

Id: Sm6lWJc8KmE

Length: 41min 39sec (2499 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/nova9001]

Yes, one of the favorite destination for higher level studies by my countrymen. Rich people could afford it but even middle class are taking loans just to send their children there to study. Most of the time, you could do the same degree in a local uni for almost free but they would spend about half a million local currency so their children get an advantage and experience Australian culture. With the policy where by most companies in Australia have to hire locals, almost every student studying in Australia gets kicked back to my country after they finish their studies.

Here they earn similar salaries compared with a graduate from the local uni. Sad to see people getting ripped off but its their choice. I think its part of the keep up with the Jones mentality where my children did not do local uni, they did Australia uni.

[u/x1009]

The same thing is happening here in America. Enrollment is down, and colleges are picking up the slack by aggressively recruiting international students who pay 1.5-2x the cost of attendance.