Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Education Services for Overseas Students Legislation Amendment Bill 2010 will, among other measures, strengthen the registration requirements of approved education providers by requiring that they have access to sufficient financial resources, a sustainable business model and the capability, governance structures and management to deliver education of a satisfactory standard. It will extend financial penalties for a broader range of non-compliant behaviour by providers.

I am pleased with this amendment as I have spoken in the parliament before about my concerns regarding the problems we have developed in the provision of international education. These concerns have been reinforced by recent analysis by University of New South Wales economist Gigi Foster. Her evidence has demonstrated that international students from non-English-speaking backgrounds are being passed without achieving the appropriate standard. Her analysis of university business students has raised real concerns over the issue of ‘soft marking’ of international students and the adequacy of English language standards. Asked whether her analysis was evidence of easier marking, Ms Foster said:

This is exactly what it is. Everybody knows the basic story being told here, but they haven’t been able to prove it conclusively because the data hasn’t been there and no one really wanted to know because it is such a delicate issue.

It would seem the poor written and verbal language skills of some international students and locals from non English-speaking backgrounds do not stop universities passing them. As reported by the Australian newspaper in reference to this research:

Academics have long alleged there are cases of cash-for-qualifications, that international fee-paying students with poor English are passed—

not because they have made the grade but because universities are counting on their fees.

Ms Foster found international students and others from non English-speaking backgrounds perform significantly worse than domestic students with average marks four points lower on a 100-grade scale in the first case and slightly lower than four points in the second case. But the higher the concentration of international students in a course the more their marks were buoyed. The article states:

Foster says she interprets this phenomenon as evidence of a type of “grading to the curve” that effectively camouflages the underperformance of international students.

This means that international students in fact may not be getting value for money because they are not reaching the standard previously associated with the qualification.

As reported in the Australian, Flinders University business academic Tony English has been among those who have been put under pressure to pass substandard work. He says he no longer has a mobile phone as overseas students would ring him at six o’clock on a Sunday morning saying, ‘Please, please, please pass me, my family has spent so much money on this.’ Mr English argued universities now progressed students who should not be at university because:

… they lack the right blend of intellect, interest and English-language skills.

His concern is also for highly functional students who realise that marking is soft and modify their work standards accordingly, leading to underperformance. He says:

Some them are just being lazy, but some of them are disillusioned.

A former student at Flinders University has attested to this experience, which included problems with international students attending tutorials and saying nothing and finding group work hard when working with students who would be better off ‘doing other things’.

As the Australian says:

The easiest way to address the quality control crisis is for universities to refuse to enrol international students whose English is not up to the standard required to write a coherent essay and participate in classroom discussion. But the need for revenue, especially in less prominent universities that do not attract large numbers of prospective students, makes this hard.

As far back as 1998, vice-chancellors reminded institutions of their duty: “Given the financial and cultural consequences of failure, special care is required to ensure that only those international students who have a reasonable chance of success are enrolled.”

In August 2009 the Prime Minister, who at the time was Minister for Education, asked the Hon. Bruce Baird to review the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 and its associated instruments and to recommend actions for ensuring that Australia continues to offer world-class quality international education. In a submission to that review I expressed concern about unsatisfactory private education providers who are more concerned with migration outcomes than with educational ones and who have eroded Australia’s reputation for the provision of quality services for international students. The lure of permanent residence has over the previous decade been the major driver of growth in international student enrolments. I emphasised the need to decouple the link between education and permanent residency, to have a cooling-off period whereby students return to their home countries after completing their courses here and to address the decline in English language standards.

The release of Mr Baird’s report included a number of important recommendations. They included: more support for international students and improved information; stronger consumer protection mechanisms to ensure students are protected from unscrupulous operators; improved regulation of Australia’s international education sector; and improved support for those who study and live in Australia, including having somewhere to go when problems arise. I want to focus on this last point because being an international student in Australia—indeed, I dare say being a student in any foreign country—means that they can be vulnerable to exploitation and to being ripped off. We have seen this in workplace areas and we have also seen it, regrettably, with students being put in situations of potential danger, working late hours and taking public transport and the like and being the subject of violent assaults.

The particular issue that I want to pursue about providing support for people who are studying and living in Australia, and providing somewhere to go when problems arise, relates to exploitation in relation to accommodation. I have come across a number of examples of this, but one that has been drawn to my attention recently is in the suburb of Brunswick in my electorate. At the invitation of one of my constituents, Mr Pasquale Valpied, I visited the complex at 108 Onion Street, Brunswick, and, frankly, it is a disgrace. If we saw it in a Third World city we would sigh and consider it as evidence of our superiority. Buildings such as this one will drag Melbourne down to the status of a Third World city. The problems include water saturated walls, mould on walls, garden beds and planter boxes left incomplete, electoral wiring left uncovered, inadequate security for electrical and phone connections, rubbish bins outside on the ground floor rather than in the basement, no newspaper holders for the delivery of newspapers et cetera.

Mr Valpied has had two reports on his apartment, one from Archicentre and another from a structural engineer. The reports say he needs to replace his entire front wall, which is saturated with water. This is probably the case for the other 25 or so ground floor apartments. He also needs to rip up the concrete topping at the front of his apartment and re-membrane and possibly re-tile it in order to waterproof it. The fundamental error is that the surface level outside the apartment is 150 millimetres higher than the floor level inside it. Therefore, every time it rains water tries to make its way inside. Mr Valpied’s carpet has been ruined and he is afraid of making new purchases for fear that they will be ruined also. It is a mystery to me why the surveyor signed off on this apartment as fit for habitation. It is a mystery to Mr Valpied also. He says he has never sighted a certificate of occupancy and his council, the Moreland Council, does not seem to have sighted one either. This raises the question of the use of private building surveyors, rather than council ones, to approve constructions.

There are a series of other issues going to the suitability and habitability of this apartment complex. Mr Valpied says that he has spoken to consumer affairs on two occasions and has been told that he has no legal protection. If this is true then it is completely unsatisfactory and it needs to be changed so that we have new dwellings like this covered by builder’s warranty insurance et cetera.

Many of the apartments in this complex are foreign owned and many have international students as tenants, but neither the foreign owners nor the student tenants should be ripped off or be expected to live in substandard accommodation. The Prime Minister, in her previous role as the Minister for Education, gave her support to begin work to implement a number of the Bruce Baird recommendations immediately. She committed the government to further consultation with the international education sector stakeholders on the remainder of the recommendations for a second tranche of legislative changes.

This bill will introduce provisions that will, among other objectives, protect the interests of students, and this should include ensuring that they are not the victims of people who seek to take advantage of their significant investment in Australia’s education system. I hope that these amendments to strengthen the educational services for overseas students will result in a more sustainable international education sector through better protection of international students and an ongoing commitment to continual quality improvement.

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