University educational standards under Labour - so much for education, education, education

The BBC report that:

"Degrees are being awarded to overseas students who speak almost no English, claims a whistleblowing academic.

The academic, at a world-famous UK university, says postgraduate degrees are awarded to students lacking in the most basic language skills. "

Read the article but more importantly the comments of which I reproduce a few here:

"It's about time the lid was blown off this practice. I'm a Lecturer at a Russell Group University and I wholeheartedly agree with the points made in your article. It's not just language either. In the rush for the glint of money we're taking students onto courses who may struggle with English but they don't even have the basic standard of education you would expect from someone undertaking post-graduate study. It's a disgrace. Some of our Departments have implemented taught Masters courses just to stay afloat. They don't take too much notice as long as the money rolls in but what does it say about standards? I'm sick of it. What a waste of our educational heritage. It's happening with undergraduate entry too. You can't fail them, even if they obviously aren't up to the course. Students won't want to come to a University that has a reputation for a high failure rate or where it is seen as "hard" to get a Degree. Will someone please wake up and smell what's being shovelled?
Simon, Nottingham


I study currently at a university and can clearly see how this is a problem. There are many people in my tutorial groups who speak little or no English and in discusssion groups when we rely on them to research certain topics it is very frustrating because you cannot understand them. Also, tutorials are taught by postgraduate students and all of these are overseas and some do not have good English yet are allowed to teach students. It isn't good enough and I think the financial incentives mentioned above have a lot to do with it.
Lloyd, York


I agree in the strongest terms. I am a postgraduate student at one of the most prestigious universities in the country and have been left shocked by the dismal standard of academics at a university which is often bracketed alongside the likes of Oxford and Cambridge. This is not due to the standard of teaching. Indeed, the lecturers are quite impressive, but rather the number of international students who can hardly put a few sentences in English together - let alone, entire paragraphs. Although to be fair, they have improved with time. Over frank conversations with many of these international students, they readily admit to having others write their personal statements and take their English language examinations. I refuse to believe that the universities are unaware of this. In either case, stringent measures must be put in place to ensure that this comes to an end. It has a disastrous impact on the quality of education not only for the local students, but indeed, the international students as well. And to pre-empt anyone accusing me of lacking cultural sensitivities... As one can tell from my name, I come from an ethnic background and have spent the majority of my life in the developing world. But, I cannot condone the use of similar circumstances as an excuse for any one to bring down the standard of education for others in British universities.
Arif Shah


My MSC Economics class at one of the Russell Group Universities was probably 90% foreign (myself included, although English is my first language). Some of the students’ language skills were extremely lacking – to the point where communication was all but impossible. It was incredibly frustrating, especially when we were split into groups for one course and I was the only one in mine with English as my mother tongue. Talking through our assignments and sharing ideas and knowledge wasn’t an option, and I feel robbed the course of a fair portion of its value. Lectures were also affected, with students holding up the entire class with mundane questions about basic meanings. Yes, we foreign students do add value – but please, please institute more rigorous language testing before letting us in (even if we are paying 3 times what local students are).
Lauren, London


I completed a masters last year and one Asian student had such poor English he could barely say hello. He could not contribute to class discussion or write his own coursework in English. He had a personal tutor assigned to him who translated all his work from Korean. It was never made clear how much more assistance he got in order to complete the course. He then ended up getting the equivalent of a 2:1. I found that a little suspect and believe he should not have been allowed to do the course without passing his English proficiency test.
Sarah, London


This is not just a problem for the students themselves, but also the other English speakers on the course. My Masters degree had a strong team working element which required all members of the team to contribute equally to a written report. Many of the foreign students on the course could not produce documents to a professional level, and it was left to the English speakers to spend their own time correcting the work. Not to mention, it is nearly impossible to have a discussion with people who's spoken English is poor. When I pointed this out to an assessor, I was told effectively tough luck. If i did not correct the english myself my marks would be penalised. I did not enroll in one of the world's top universities to correct other people's English.
Berney, Cambridge"

Labour have dumbed down GCSEs, A levels and degrees - what a result.