Job Discussion Forums

[Miyazaki]

Are there any Australians here that can comment on the reputation of Master degrees and other post graduate degrees coming out of Australia.

It seem they were in the news recently being criticized for their not having any clear guidlines or standards for English language testing of foreign students.

It seems that the Australian schools are 'selling' their degrees and making millions of dollars off of unqualified foreign students.

I dont' have the article but read it about a month ago on the internet.

Anyone see this article?

Will this scandal devalue Australian degrees in the international community?

[deezy]

I haven't seen the article but this is what's happening... I know because my husband used to lecture for a Uni... but at a TAFE. Less 'good quality' foreign students are studying in Australia. The Uni's are having to lower the entry requirements to 'get' the foreign students as they need their money. A result of this is that the TAFEs are losing out on their foreign students, as these are now going to the Uni's, so in turn the TAFEs are having to lower their entry requirements. The resulting foreign intake for TAFEs has been so low that my husband lost his job (the fact that he's 59 also may have had some relevance). In fact, around 10 lecturers lost their jobs, not just him, and that was in just one TAFE in one department.

Last semester he said he really needed to be a TEFL teacher, not a teacher of Project Management, Business Systems and Ethics, etc.. as his students hardly spoke a word of English!

He was told that he HAD to pass a certain percentage of the students, even if they were useless. So frankly the quality and reputation of the degrees etc. are now suspect.

[Miyazaki]

Do you agree with these comments:

[Gordon]

I would not agree with the last statements. I am currently doing a distance masters degree with an Australian university and think it is of high quality. Can't comment on the ethnicity of all my classmates, but 90% of them are native speakers as my best guess in our online discussions.

[Aramas]

Over the past decade or so, Australia's right-wing government has overseen the dismantling of Australia's health and education systems. Universities have been transformed into corporations, and education into a product to be aggressively marketed to anyone with the cash - preferably foreign exchange cash. Despite the Lying Rodent's promise to the contrary, anyone with a lazy $100k+ can do medicine or vet science (traditionally the most difficult courses to get into) at an Australian university.

Anyone who can pay can get in to an Australian university, but passing is another matter entirely. 'Soft option' subjects such as business, law, arts, womyn's studies etc. have always been a doddle, and nothing much has changed there. Statistical pass criteria have always been used for fluffy subjects. However, hard science, engineering, medicine, vet science etc. is still as hard as it ever was. A couple of years ago I failed a quantum and nuclear physics subject that had returned a 80%+ failure rate for the previous five years. They had no plans to change the pass criteria.

As for asians making up the bulk of foreign students in Australia, in my experience the euros out number them ten to one, and the vast majority of 'asians' at my local uni were born and bred in Australia and have a broader Australian accent than I do.

And before anyone gets snotty with me for casting aspersions on the veracity of their 'liberal studies' degree from the University of Wagga Wagga, I'm currently doing a distance BA in Advanced Navel Gazing (aka 'philosophy'), so I'm hardly one to be throwing stones

[donfan]

I completed my online Masters Degree through the University of New England in New South Wales. I found the course to be of a good standard. The main "lecturer" is a Canadian, Karen Woodman. Even though I never met her in person I found her to be extremely helpful and knowledgeable. The only negative comment I would say is that for a Masters degree I found the course very easy. In some ways this was good as I did the course fulltime and was teaching fulltime at the same time, but I would have liked to have been challenged more in my thinking and research skills. I think I put in less effort than I did for my degree yet got better results. For some assignments, as long as you had read the required readings, it was difficult not to get a High Distinction for. I think out the eight subjects I completed I got a HD for seven and a D for the other. But it was very enjoyable.

[ls650]

This subject is being discussed in a thread in the AUS/NZ forum...

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=24669