Foreign students down by 50%

Australian unis hit the panic button as government pulls foreign student pin

This is very dangerous for the low end of property market.

 

Not just the low end, well located apartments stacked to the rafters with bunk beds will take a hit, also the 1 bedroom apartments that the more affluent students live in (renting or owned/bought for by overseas parents)

 

Lucky we didn’t build thousand of new apartments in last 2-3 years... NOT!!!!

 

Lucky most of us didn’t buy any of them!

 

If you read that article closely, foreign student numbers aren't down 50%, it's the drop in transitions that's of note...will that discourage future students? Probably to some extent it will.

Policy on these visas is all over the shop, anyone would think they're making it up as they go along...!

 

that's what I said before - we don't sell education, we sell PR.

one of comments confirms that:

I worked as a teaching/research academic in a Go8 University for many years. My teaching duties included coordinating a course in a science discipline.

Many of the foreign fee-paying students had a minimal interest in the content of the course.

Their sole interest was to get a degree (any degree) which they could then use as a "tick the box" exercise en route to getting permanent resident status here.

 

I've got a 1 bedder near Sydney uni. Airbnb'ed. I'm not worried that international student numbers may drop - because in the area there is so much demand from other people anyway. It's a place I'd happily live, walk to work, 30 minutes and you have walked into the middle of the city.

I am soon to get a repeat guest - Malaysian student, she first came with family 3 years ago and they will come again this June to see her graduate. (Mechanical Engineering student!). I asked her what her next plans were and she said a postgraduate research project....
Hmmm. Glutton for punishment...

On the other hand, I was a postgrad "Professional Accounting" student at Newcastle Uni in Sydney city and I think 80%+ of the students were Chinese and they weren't interested in the course. My feeling was, most of them had done Accounting as undergrads in China and were only here doing that course to gain residency.

 

I was most interested that the article said that the unis would now have to focus on actual course quality.

Now there's a novel idea.....

 

didnt macquarie just launch a MD program that is not supported by hecs ?? full fee paying only, regardless if you are PR/citizen or foreign...

australia education system in universities has been moving backwards for 10 + years now.. nothing new here.

 

A friend who teaches at uni told me students from a particular country would come to him and offer cash if he would let them get their degree. When he refused and scolded them, one said she could easily find a more sympathetic professor. He was stunned.

Funny thing is these students were similarly stunned by his flat refusal because they were expecting him, as a compatriot, to show more understanding.

 

nothing new here... amazing that its a news for some that students are not coming here just to study.

here is another news for you guys, only a fraction of international students anywhere in the world are there to just study, I repeat 'anywhere'.

 

Not sure about the property market implications, but this seems like a good move honestly. When universities become focussed on getting as many through the door as possible, standards drop, and reputations go with them. A lot of universities seem to have lost their research focus and have instead become student churn factories. I think Julia Gillard made a huge mistake in uncapping places, extending them would have been better.

My wife's youngest sister is onto her third degree, all of them maybe 30% complete. It's such a waste of money. This girl is not an academic person, has failed several classes, doesn't turn up, and is not going to get a useful degree even if she does eventually graduate.

 

yeah, probably you're right.

here is some study: Return rates of European graduate students in the US : How many and... - only 1/3 of European students studing in US return back to Europe

 

Sadly I have to agree with you on this. I have completed 2 degrees with a high level of international students. They were a lot more interested in getting the degree than engaging with the course material. With the students I studied with, it was to get a job back home.

 

of course, if you think about it, most countries offer free/scholarship or discounted tertiary education for their own citizen/pr.. unless u are pretty special going oversea to "study" is going to cost money,, if you going to harvard or oxford etc etc .. allot of money.

so in that case anyone who go oversea to study are all on parents money, either the parents have money means the kids go oversea to do a degree, with that license to party and have fun

the other one is the average or below average parents who scrap every cent for their kids to have a better education or life if that is possible, many of these will have to work part time to supplement their weekly expenses

if they go back, having a degree from oversea also grant them better work opportunity and pay.

at the end of the day its about the paper not the education.. sad but true..

 

Can always just pay someone to do exams for them

 

Probably won't notice its a different person sitting the exam either as long as BMI is similar.

 

Couldn't agree more. Cap the places and a degree means something, used to have to be in the top 20 per cent to have a good chance to get a place in grade 12. There's an incentive to work hard in the late nineties to get a place. Though I would not do a degree again. TAFE is far more useful and in many ways harder to achieve a result now.

 

A former colleague teaching in UNSW was told to pass international students, as long as the quality wasn't really embarrassing.

I am for capping of some degrees and bringing the prestige back to some of the degrees offered. The standard should not be reduced just to cater for people not meeting the cut.

 

who gonna play for the brand new building and robotic library that no one really need if thats the case ?