Foreign students and declining higher education standards

As a consequence, some academics complain that courses are being 'dumbed down' to assist students to pass. Where students were once required to know and understand various points of view about any topic, now the 'textbook view' is sufficient. Many classes thus focus on how to answer exam questions, rather than pursuing the knowledge of a subject in any in-depth manner. According to these lecturers, there is ...."a disincentive to fail students, particularly foreign ones."

Quality assurance systems within universities are focused on procedure, rather than outcomes, and have little, if any bearing on academic quality. ISO accreditations are concerned with paper flows, and course accreditations tend to be based upon faculties meeting particular KPIs. Although tools like Bloom's Taxonomy are still the backbone of curriculum structuring and teaching strategies, the taxonomy itself is not actually based upon research. It was formed by a consensus in meetings of academics held some 60 years ago. Many academics actually criticize the taxonomy as not being properly constructed, lacking any systematic rationale of construction, where thought and learning don't fit into neat compartments.

According to some doctoral graduates who had returned from Britain and also wished to remain anonymous as they hold jobs in Malaysian universities, told the author that some universities in the UK had two-tier standards. Foreign students who intended to return to their countries after graduation, were examined at a lower standard than those who wished to remain in the UK after their graduation. A number of universities within the Euro zone are well known for applying different standards for foreign post graduate students and are extremely active in recruiting potential students who would have difficulty in completing the requirements of a doctorate at other institutions.

The student culture of today is distinctively different from previous generations. Plagiarism, once a pillar of taboo within any university, is common among student cohorts today. Many assignments are filled with 'Googled' material. There are plenty of websites students can buy assignments from, and there are even people for hire who can write a complete doctorial thesis for a negotiated price.

It is the academics themselves who hold the knowledge that a university disseminates. However, Australian universities seem to be slowly losing their talent to overseas universities. One distinguished professor of Entrepreneurship was let go by Deakin University, due to the sudden closure of an institute and university policy of seniority based on length of employment. He is now serving as a senior professor in EGADE Business School, in Techologico de Monterrey, Mexico. Bureaucracy, rather than academics now control who will be on staff.

The new objective of universities appears to be focused in providing a process that leads to the awarding of a degree to serve as a 'meal ticket' for foreign students. It also appears with the exception of a few highly ranked universities, academic standards have been allowed to slip in the pursuit of the above objective.

The balance of power within universities has drastically shifted to the point where academics now have little say in how universities are run. Academics are cowed into following policy rather than their sense of what is best academically.

Academic standards have slipped ever since the influx of massive numbers of foreign students. Higher education is not what it was before.