Australia: Are Twinning Programs and Fast Track Graduations Best?
Controversial Report Spurs Tougher English Testing
February 09, 2007
International students hoping to study in Australia will be facing more difficult English-language entrance tests in coming years. The Australian Vice-Chancellors’Committee and the country’s Immigration department are planning to put a new requirement in place in July, 2008, Committee president Gerald Sutton said last week.
The announcement followed the release last month of a report by Monash University demographer Bob Birrell—a report whose results have found their way into news headlines across Australia. Accord ing to the study, more than a third of the foreign students graduating from Australian universities have such low levels of English that they should not have been admitted in the first place. The study also claims
that a third of Australia’s international university entrants avoid taking mandatory English tests. Foreign students contribute about 15 per cent of the revenues of Australian universities. About a third of the 239,000 international students in the country are expected to remain after their studies to look for work. They are welcomed by Australian governments, which are concerned about shortages of skilled workers. Dr. Sutton denied claims that Australian universities have been lowering their standards to allow foreign students to graduate, and Education Minister Julie Bishop condemned the study as an “extraordinary” attack on Australian universities. Source: “Foreign Students Facing Tougher Tests,” The Age, Jan. 29, 2007
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