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Are there too many Internationals at UNI these days? (1 Viewer)

Are there too many Internationals at UNI these days?

  • Yes- Too many Internationals

    Votes: 85 82.5%
  • No- Not enough Internationals

    Votes: 18 17.5%

  • Total voters
    103

ObjectsInSpace

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humglish said:
get rid of internationals.

unless they get a decent mark in english at a HSC level, they shouldn't be able to go.

that's just it.
Again, someone is missing the point. Yes, internationals get in because they pay upfront. and no, they probably shouldn't be allowed in because of it. But if the university doesn't have money, you don't get a degree. Lecturers aren't going to teach you for free, and the university isn't going to look after itself. There would be no money for student services, to provide accomodation or to keep the university running on a day-to-day basis. It's one of the reasons VSU is the most pathetic excuse for policy-making this side of WorkChoices.

So while you might not like international students being at your university when they didn't get the same marks as you, unfortunately you depend on them to keep the university running. You can preach that universities shouldn't be run as businesses, but without the money, you're the one who loses at the end of the day.
 

Conspirocy

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ObjectsInSpace said:
Again, someone is missing the point. Yes, internationals get in because they pay upfront. and no, they probably shouldn't be allowed in because of it. But if the university doesn't have money, you don't get a degree. Lecturers aren't going to teach you for free, and the university isn't going to look after itself. There would be no money for student services, to provide accomodation or to keep the university running on a day-to-day basis. It's one of the reasons VSU is the most pathetic excuse for policy-making this side of WorkChoices.

So while you might not like international students being at your university when they didn't get the same marks as you, unfortunately you depend on them to keep the university running. You can preach that universities shouldn't be run as businesses, but without the money, you're the one who loses at the end of the day.
That is not true. Universities that cannot afford to provide the adequate coverage required for a degree should not run that program. International students are seen as the answer to gaining more funding, but if at the end of the degree it is dumbed down, then your degree has little to no value.

International funding is not the option. I would rather have one university in Sydney for quality students, and have to work hard to get a place. Than have 5 universities of varying standards competing for funding in NSW. I would rather work hard and fail to get a place at the one university in NSW knowing that those who do get in are actually the best. (An easy argument here would be that obviously there are international students who are better than everyone and could easily fit in here - however this is the same as the argument of fee paying students who are capable of doing the work - the issue is not whether they are capable, the issue is they did not perform the work to get that place and achieve the standard required, why should they be able to buy their place if Australia truely is an egalitarian society, with equality and equity for all) I am extremely frustrated, and think others would be frustrated at how people can buy their way into a degree whether they be international student or domestic fee paying. People work hard to get into a degree that is worth something when they finish it, and international students and the stigma associated with them acts to reduce the value of that work.
 

Conspirocy

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Please refer to your previous statement in bold.

koube0530 said:
Maybe. But it's still an issue.

We're told to focus on the substance of the answers which is a fair call. But you've got to at least say it properly and not have tutors like me guessing what you really meant.

I don't penalise them so I guess the local students are disadvantaged in some way.
Now please justify your argument bellow.

koube0530 said:
I don't buy your 'the local student has some underlying meaning' point. If there's some underlying meaning then say it and you'll get rewarded for it. I also can't accept the point about local students being criticised for not making their argument strongly. I've never seen that happen. Maybe he really didn't make his point properly.

When I mark, I don't make a conscious decision about whether this person is an international student. The instructions are to reward marks for the substance of the answer. So if a local student with a British surname wrote poorly but I can work out what she meant, I won't penalise her for it.

There's a separate criteria for spelling, punctuation and grammar and marks (albeit very few marks) are deducted against that criteria. If you penalise somebody's understanding of the issues because of grammar/punctuation, then you are double counting the mistakes.

To finish off, you are a complete idiot.
LIAR! LIAR!!!! LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!!!!
 

Krieg

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humglish said:
While I can see your point, that yes I'm not at uni yet, the disadvantage will be on me when I cant get into a course and internationals can, despite having lower marks than me.

is that fair?

and its only going to get worse, with the government allowing more international students into Australian unis. Do you think its fair that soon the only way someone can get an education is if they buy themselves one?
International students aren't taking up CSP's.

I agree that it's stupid that international students get special treatment and hope that this changes sometime in the near future (probably wont) but I couldn't care less how many come provided the Uni keeps its good reputation and they are smart etc...
 

ainthatinnocent

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Quote:
Originally Posted by zab02
The thing is that these Internationals that come to Australia are the ones that were not good enough to get into Uni's in their own country. Because of their rich parents and Australia's willingness to accept Cashed-up Students, they come here. To prevent them from dropping out, the Uni lowers the standards and therefore the degree loses its prestige and the local students suffer because of it.

The sad thing is the Uni's have become a business, its not there to provide education. It's there to make a profit.

How do you make a profit?, you cut costs- increase Tut and lecture sizes, so the cost per student is small and most of the paperwork has been outsourced online. Sure they have become efficient in providing education, the cost per student is small but is that really effective?

Increasing class sizes, increasing lecture sizes, reduced contact hours, increasing intake of full fee paying students has just worsened educational standards- degraded the piece of paper the degree is written on.

School was about providing education before, my old Year 12 coordinator said she finished 2 degree's and it didnt cost her a cent and back then they had tut classes which had to have less than 12 students. So now they have introduced fee's, increased them at every opportunity and provided a poorer standard of teaching then they did before. Talk about value for Customers. Now the Liberal government wants to bring Hecs fee's for Commerce to the top band which is equal to that with Law and allow Uni's to accept more full fee paying students. It's a sad inditement on this country, were we are now and the way we are heading.



yeah the ones that come here are serious crappy dumb people who can't make it in their own country but have rich parents.
First of all, I AM an international student from an asian country. The reason I am here studying in Australia is not, one, because I'm not good enough to get into uni in my own country, two, and not because it's easy to get in here because I have "rich parents". If I were to stay in my country and finish my course there, I would get into university easy, AND with FULL scholarship. International students face the same stringent methods used to 'pick' students for the university. In case you haven't looked at an International booklet, internationals have to achieve an equivalent to your UAI score in order to be accepted into a particular university here. Whether it is a Hong Kong A-levels, or STPM, or Cambridge A-levels, or International Baccalaureate, or what have you. We have to achieve the equivalent of whatever the UAI is for whatever course that we are applying for.

I AM HERE BECAUSE THE STANDARD OF EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA IS ON PAR WITH THE UK AND THE US IN MANY UNIVERSITIES. Many international students come here because having an overseas education is seen as more desirable to employers due to the higher level of education.

I'm here under scholarship, thank you very much, and I've gone through Australian Year 12 English with an A, and also the International English Language Tests (IELTS) with a score of 8.5. Yes, I agree that many international students do not have a proper grasp of the english language to adequately express themselves, either spoken or written-wise. However this problem is not their fault. What can you do when the national language is not english, and you grow up learning it in school, and speaking it at home? However, this does not mean that international students are STUPID, JUST because they can't speak a language you have learnt since you were a kid? Again, as I have said above, certain scores are needed to get into australian universities.

Also, I completely agree with the fact that many internationals (I'm assuming you all are pinpointing asians here) stick to their own 'kind'. Well, again, are we to blame them? They are in a foreign strange country, where they don't speak the language very well and have a funny accent when they do, where the food is weird and people aren't very friendly to them because they look or act different. So they 'huddle' together for protection. So would you if you were overseas in a country where you don't speak the language well.

I believe the standard of education in Australia IS going down. But so are the standards of the whole world. Why ? We've discussed this in economics, debated about it. First of all, every country wants their work force to be competitive, right? With globalisation happening so rapidly now, people have to be able to compete in the world labour market/countries have to able to be competitive. More and more people are getting degrees, every one has some kind of qualification nowadays. Therefore, in order to keep their labour force competitive, ALL countries around the world lower their education standards. And it's easier now for anyone to get in!

Do not assume the same of every international student. I'm scoring HDs and Ds in my classes, so I don't see why I "lower the standards" when so many others are barely passing.

That's my two cents.
 

ObjectsInSpace

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Conspirocy said:
That is not true. Universities that cannot afford to provide the adequate coverage required for a degree should not run that program. International students are seen as the answer to gaining more funding, but if at the end of the degree it is dumbed down, then your degree has little to no value.

International funding is not the option. I would rather have one university in Sydney for quality students, and have to work hard to get a place. Than have 5 universities of varying standards competing for funding in NSW. I would rather work hard and fail to get a place at the one university in NSW knowing that those who do get in are actually the best. (An easy argument here would be that obviously there are international students who are better than everyone and could easily fit in here - however this is the same as the argument of fee paying students who are capable of doing the work - the issue is not whether they are capable, the issue is they did not perform the work to get that place and achieve the standard required, why should they be able to buy their place if Australia truely is an egalitarian society, with equality and equity for all) I am extremely frustrated, and think others would be frustrated at how people can buy their way into a degree whether they be international student or domestic fee paying. People work hard to get into a degree that is worth something when they finish it, and international students and the stigma associated with them acts to reduce the value of that work.
But you have to admit that without international funding, universities wouldn't be able to provide additional services. We've got a sports centre at UNE, but without funding from international students it wouldn't be able to stay open ... hell, it barely survives in the post-VSU world.
 

rozymisty

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I do think there are many international students studying here in Australia. Many come here to get a better education and they work very hard. My friend who I am renting a place with and her boyfriend are international students and their spoken english is relatively good, but sometimes not written. But as long as they put in the effort thats the main thing.

There was a big uproar last year at Uni of Qld about a number of students found cheating, mainly international students using chinese dictonaries etc. sure i do believe that some markers are forced to pass the students just coz they are paying a fortune for the degree, whcih isnt good. They pay like $8000 a semester for nursing degree, not sure about higher HECS degrees, so it is a fortune, we only pay like $8000 in like 2 years!

With the loss of stuident unions, the uni's struggle for money. In fact actually the union doesnt pay for uni expenses, its the HECS that goes to the uni. The union fees go to student services. But wiht the loss of fees now, the uni's are struggling more.

There are many international students doing my course and Im fine with it, in fact its interesting to meet people from other cultures, after all we are a multicultural society, or have you guys forgoten that?? I think its important also to be multicultural, more variety in lifestyles etc makes liffe interesting and we are willing to try out new things.

As ainthatinnocent said, most internationals come over here to get a better employment status etc. And having imersed themselves in another culture will make them better people as well! Why else do they have cultural exchanges etc.

The health faculty here at QUT, well more the school of nursing regularly hosts a group of Chinese nursing students who come over here to learn about the health care system here and enjoy the culture. However, apparently for international sstudents here, when they go back to CHina, the nursing degree isnt recognised as apparently the nurses do a lot more than nurses do here in Australia.

Also think about who we are doing more and more trade with now a days? ASIA! So natuarally we need to know about their culture and vis versa.

Personally id like to interact with more international students, find out what thieir culture is like etc. I have numerous friends who are tawianese etc backgrounds, some aussies, some international students, and thats good. YOu just cant go through life expecting to only interact with Anglo people.
 

blackfriday

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aintthatinnocent, you must be one of the few international students who bothered to learn to write english properly, with the correct grammar and proper use of words in the appropriate context. you mention that you're here on scholarship, which implies that you were pretty bright to start with.

BUT you are probably an isolated case because through my experience, the majority of international students speak awful english (which i have nothing against), and because several of my family members have come from asia to study in an australian university, i know that the difficulty of getting in is very low. where else can someone jump straight from year 11 with a mark of 70% in an 'english' test straight into first year foundation studies?
 
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PrinceHarry said:
The best and most qualified international students prefers to go to USA and UK Universities thats why Australia, NZ and Canada got many not so qualified international students hence the problems many of you mentioned with international students particularly from China/Thailand etc.

The irony is Australian students did not perform much better than their international counterparts ;)
or maybe they don't all want to pay like a quarter of a million dollars for a bit of paper?
 

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how the hell could anyone possibly vote "not enough internationals"?

really.
 

blackfriday

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someone with a international student fantasy fetish (ala. nadia from american pie)
 

breaking

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i don't think she's a typical international student though.
nope.
 

ainthatinnocent

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aintthatinnocent, you must be one of the few international students who bothered to learn to write english properly, with the correct grammar and proper use of words in the appropriate context. you mention that you're here on scholarship, which implies that you were pretty bright to start with.

BUT you are probably an isolated case because through my experience, the majority of international students speak awful english (which i have nothing against), and because several of my family members have come from asia to study in an australian university, i know that the difficulty of getting in is very low. where else can someone jump straight from year 11 with a mark of 70% in an 'english' test straight into first year foundation studies?
Yeah well, I have been fortunate enough to escape criticism because I actually grew up speaking english, and mandarin, and malay.

Yes, the majority of international students speak awful - mediocre english, because they have to learn it from scratch.

Well, the part about foundations studies IS pretty true. If you are sure about the university that you want to study in, you have the choice of doing a foundations course in that university. And yes, it is true that the entry requirements for a particular university for their own foundations programme is comparatively low, but there is still some sort of "filtering" that happens at that stage. I can understand where the "bad" students come from. However, the majority of international students finish some kind of equivalent to the Year 12 exam in order to be accepted into university here.

However, I still believe that saying that having "too many" internationals in Australian universities lower the educational standards, is wrong.
 

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iamsickofyear12 said:
They are paying for the education system but they are not contributing to society after their degree. Some are, because some stay, but plenty just leave and contribute nothing to to the economy after they leave. Australian students pay taxes all their lives and their knowledge and spending contributes to the economy.
I don't support the free incoming inflow of internationals that are currently taking place but we have to admit they are paying for our uni facilities. If it wasn't for their $25,000 up front cash per year, our unis would still be some old creepy buildings with poor facilities.

However, I hate those internationals and don't want to name any specific countries or anything but I don't appreciate SOME OF THE FOREIGN GANG MEMBERS studying in our unis.
 

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They struggle to integrate and they form their own groups which excludes them even more from the rest of us Australian students. This can only be a bad thing, remember the Virginia Tech shootings? Who was that done by? None other than an International student from Korea. Oh before everyone says thats just America, remember the shootings at Monash Clayton not that long ago was done by another International student. Is that the thanks we get for opening up so much opportunities for foreigners?
 

Goodbye

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He wasnt an international student..... He moved there when he was 8.....
 

Triangulum

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Goodbye said:
He wasnt an international student..... He moved there when he was 8.....
Yeah, but like, foreigners! They want to kill everyone, you know?
 

noneother

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Absolutely agree with thread starter.
My experience at university leaves much to be desired.
The most memorable classes were those where international students were minimal. It was wonderful having discussions with classmates and a real camaraderie was felt between everyone in the group (excluding the internationals). This was never the case when internationals were the majority.
 

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