Australia : International students are cash cows?

Cash cows? I was happy to study in Europe, hope it does NOT get this bad. Students in Australia pay a lot.

A lot of Taiwanese go there study and work
but news reports say 80% had some or very bad expereinces

That video is from 2019. Though for a decade or so, Foreign Students have been big business for Universities and the like in Australia, and for the students the University Degree can lead to a Resident Visa.

And to put it another way, would you like your Degree to be from a highly ranked University? (quite a few Australian ones are in the top 50) … it makes a big difference when you start looking for a job and flash that certificate around.

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That’s a bit mean…

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I know in Germany, if you’re an international student studying degrees in German (as in not purpose made international degrees), you really only have to worry about the cost of living, not so much tuition, because they’re paid for even as international students, that was back around 2011 and so I am unsure if it has changed now.

But in English speaking countries like AU? International students are cash cows. They’re charged 3x in tuition than local students (at least in the case of the US).

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In many Australian universities, international students are 40-50% of the total student body, and in some disciplines, well above that. This skews the whole focus of teaching and lowers standards as many of them cannot speak or write the language well enough to graduate without cheating (getting through by using paper mills, paying for others to take their exams, only speaking in Chinese during tutorials, etc.). Also has effects on the rental housing market, on perceived value of the degree for locals, on part-time jobs market and so on.

So much so that the government has just introduced a cap on student visa numbers. Well received in some quarters, but opposed by the big and small universities who miss out on income, which they are happy to receive despite poisoning their well.

figures from education.gov.au show for financial year 2023-2024: International education was worth $51.0 billion to the Australian economy. There was $30.2 billion paid as Goods and Services and $20.6 billion paid as Tuition Fees.

I’d say that is a major economic contributor…

https://www.education.gov.au/international-education-data-and-research/education-export-income-financial-year

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I thought English proficiency would be a major requirement to be admitted, but then that would be a bit unreasonable to expect of international students. Maybe they could recruit students from Philippines, India where English proficiency is much better than say China.

It is, but they cheat on those admissions exams too. Easily done, especially with complicit and corrupt local testing agents.

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My uni in Canada (which has a very similar situation, but was late to the party) had a clever grift. Students were easily admitted into the program of their choice, but they’d have to pass the English classes first. So double fee paying students could say they were studying engineering, when actually they were just failing English class for 4 years. The university didn’t care about graduation rates, and the classes were mostly taught by grad students from education or linguistics.

The US has been doing this for decades. A lot of the US-granted PhD holders overseas are not very good. But they paid more and the universities would rather get the money and pass them through the system, than fail them and risk turning off the tap. Actually teaching them, hilariously, isn’t even on the table.

The UK I think is heading in the same direction, actually i don’t know

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When I was at UT Austin many faculties, especially the math and physics department, are all Chinese. They had passable English. Like probably half the students in my calculus class were Chinese, and spoke no English. Whole thing is a grift. Even at UT Austin there’s students who could barely read and write, I don’t how they got in.

While Taiwan is essentially bribing students to come to Taiwan and study.

NSW in the top 15 for most degrees including commerce and law.

When my lad studied there he refused to have PRC students in his required group where 4 students teamed up to to projects. He said the PRC students did not have the language skills and would drag down the results. He also complained they often copied works from others.

So he found three other students whose aim was for top marks.

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Universities in Australia are federally funded. So the majority of courses are funded that way but not all. Many Australians also pay the same fees for post graduate courses as international students as they are not covered by federal funding. Also for some undergraduate courses as well. If a class quota for federal funding is full Australian students can pay full fees to do a course.

So my sons undergrad degree he paid upfront the HECS amount.
For his post grad JD Law he paid the full fee of A$40k a year tuition for three yeads which does not include books and other materials.

Why would you start a statement with “like AU” and reference the US? They are not the same thing. Not even remotely close. The US rips off its own citizens through ridiculous loan schemes and charging crazy prices to people simply from a different state.

University study is subsidised by the Australian government for Australian citizens, permanent residents and most New Zealand citizens living in Australia. These people enrol in a commonwealth supported place - there are also limits in this and if people breach that they will be forced to enrol as a full fee paying student

Australian citizens usually pay the balance of the ‘student contribution’ through an interest free government student loan, only citizens have access to this.
Usually this is about $2000AUD per unit with most university degrees being 24 units

Foreigners are, understandably and obviously, not eligible for the government subsidy. So they are full-fee paying students. Which is the roughly the total fee without government subsidies. Australians can also enrol as a full fee paying student if they wish which has benefits such as scholarship eligibility depending on the university.

So the total fee is the same but Australians receive government assistance for their study. Not unlike European countries offering free study

In saying that I think the full-fee is ridiculously high for both international students to pay and for the government to cough up for its residents. Universities are greedy.

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They do.

A lot of universities are now accepting the Duolingo English Test. It’s cheap, quick (takes an hour), and presumably cheerful.

The standards ship sailed a long time ago.

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I paid around 5000 a semester at UT Austin. This is in state tuition. International tuition is several times higher. UT has a flat rate tuition scheme however, any hours you enroll past 12 hours is capped, that means if you are brave and enroll 18 hours a semester, you can graduate faster/save money.

In Germany they give international students the same tuition for German programs as German citizens. There’s an expectation that you’ll work in Germany after graduation though because you’ve gotten a degree at government expense, they want you to start paying taxes there. It’s not exactly required or anything but it’s certainly an easy path to immigrate to Germany as the work permit requirement following graduating a German university is easier.

I think this makes more sense than turning students into cash cows. The flip side is the admission standard would be higher.

I would also say that the problem of cashing up on foreign students is not with major universities. But with private RTOs who can provide TAFE and Uni degrees but are often at a lower standard in almost every way. Foreigners enrolled in these institutions can also apply for student visas.
Good if you’re just after a piece of paper to prove skills you already have though

It’s also a common tactic for people to extend their working holidays when the time is up. - they enrol in the cheapest course that will get them a student visa that comes with work rights

Did you watch the video TL. Most international students in Australia come from China and, INDIA.

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What does this have to with AU fees?

He is confused again as to what country thread he is posting in. Every country in the world according to TL is a vassal state of the USA.

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In Germany the drop our rate for students is also very high. When it’s free is can have no value at all.

According to recent data from the German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW), the dropout rate for Bachelor’s students in Germany is around 28%, meaning nearly one-third of students do not complete their degree

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