Me: What standards do you put in place to ensure that foreign students have adequate English skills when they are undertaking studies. I get two major requirements – one is the English issues and I hear back from a lot of local students who say that a lot of assessment courses are group assignments whereby certain students aren’t pulling their weight and therefore the actual teacher of that subject is not pulling their weight because every student is not being assessed on that assignment or has to perform the assignment.
University rent seeker: Senator I can’t respond to anecdotal examples.
Me: That’s an anecdote I’ve been hearing for well over a decade.
University Rent seeker: Well certainly, from unnamed academics.
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I’m pretty sure I’m not Robinson Crusoe when it comes to hearing about group assignments being done by one or two students while the others bludge and students who can’t speak English.
The other issue I forgot to ask about was online assessment where students virtually have no contact hours whatsoever.
If our University sector is so great at training why do we have to import so many immigrants to fill the skill shortage.
Committee on 6/08/2024
Item: Education and Employment Legislation Committee – 06/08/2024 – Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Quality and Integrity) Bill 2024
Senator RENNICK: What standards do you put in place to ensure that foreign students have adequate English skills when they are undertaking studies? I hear about two major issues. The first one is obviously the English requirements. The second thing I hear from a lot of local students is that a lot of assessment courses are now group assignments and that certain students aren’t pulling their weight—and therefore the actual teacher of that subject is not pulling their weight, because not every student is actually being assessed or has to perform on that assignment, but they’ll get the marks because of other students’ work.
Mr Sheehy : Certainly I can’t respond to anecdotal examples. But what I will say—
Senator RENNICK: Well, that’s an anecdote that I’ve been hearing for well over a decade.
Mr Sheehy : Certainly, and I’ve heard of this in my over 20 years in the sector from time to time—particularly unnamed academics. But what I will say is that there are rigorous standards for English language entry into Australia. That’s also part of the negotiations we’ve had with government around the changes to the Migration Act. There are programs and standards in place to ensure that students at universities have the English language requirements. If they don’t, they don’t get admitted.
Senator RENNICK: And what about group assignments?
Ms Thomson : And beyond that, universities also have, in terms of IELTS, different scores above that.
Mr Sheehy : Correct. The university sector has very high and rigorous standards for English-language entry requirements.
Senator RENNICK: What about group assignments?
Mr Sheehy : Group assignments are a part of authentic assessment approaches in our universities. This is a good thing, because it is actually closer to the world of work, and we want that for Australian and international students. As I said, I can’t speak to individual examples. What I will say is that students are in an English-speaking environment when they come to Australia. They have English-language requirements that are rigorous to get admission into the university degree. I’m proud of the fact that we have so many students coming and choosing to come to Australia, and Australian students benefit from that global view in their classrooms.
