Universities launch international student propaganda drive

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Innovative Research Universities (IRU) – a collaboration between Charles Darwin University, Flinders University, Griffith University, James Cook University, La Trobe University, Murdoch University and Western Sydney University – met yesterday to commence talks on undertaking collective action to “counter media and public concerns” surrounding international students and to further grow the market by expanding into new non-English speaking countries:

Leaders from the Innovative Research Universities group convene at member Charles Darwin U today for a three-day strategy session.

The international market, and how to get more of it, is big on the agenda with discussions of new markets (Russia, Africa and Latin America are mentioned) and the possibility of a collective IRU recruitment presence in them. The IRU is also interested in, “collective action to show effectiveness of international education outcomes to counter public and media concerns”

Presumably, the “public and media concerns” IRU refers to relates to the fallout from May’s Four Corners expose, entitled “Cash cows”, which accused Australia’s universities of badly lowering their standards in a bid to lift students numbers, resulting in widespread plagiarism, academic misconduct, and rising failure rates among international students.

Interestingly, IRU is chaired by Murdoch University Vice Chancellor, Professor Eeva Leinonen, whose university was badly implicated by Four Corners for achieving a 92% lift in international students numbers between 2017 and 2018 by crashing English language standards and “dumbing down” their courses for profit, leading to a strong student backlash.

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However, instead of addressing the problems front on, as the University of Tasmania (UTAS) has by tightening English-language requirements, Professor Leinonen instead denied any wrongdoing and labelled Four Corners “probably racist” for accusing universities of using international students as “cash cows”:

“There were claims in that story. Look, I used to be an international student once upon a time. If somebody had called me a cash cow, I would have been absolutely livid. It is insulting and it is probably racist”…

“I do stand by my earlier comment that it is insulting, absolutely insulting, to call human beings cash cows. And this is not the first time that that particular network [The ABC] has done so”.

What we are witnessing here is the IRU effectively acting like Australia’s bank executives did in the lead up to the Hayne Royal Commission.

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Rather than attempting to fix the myriad of problems by lifting entry standards, the IRU is instead looking to use propaganda to give the message that the university system is functioning properly and their institutions are acting in the best interests of their students, educational standards, and the broader Australian economy.

Given the laundry list of problems identified by Four Corners and elsewhere, the federal government should ignore vested interests like IRU and enlist the Productivity Commission to undertake a sweeping review of the sector, including a detailed analysis of the benefits and costs of the international student trade.

About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.