Australia’s international student trade has reached farcical proportions with a journalism student who took his fight against a failed assignment to the state’s highest court — and lost — now claiming he was victimised by Monash University:
Chinmay Naik received just 12 marks out of 100 for a Masters of Journalism video assignment about negative stereotypes surrounding different dog breeds, causing him to fail the entire subject.
Mr Naik, 23, had already been granted a 19-day extension to submit the assignment, which included “a video of three vox pops … asking very general and unconnected questions surrounding dogs”.
The Court of Appeal last year ruled Mr Naik has “no arguable case” against Monash University and upheld the Supreme Court’s decision to throw the matter out.
But the international student has now claimed he was “victimised” by the academic board after they refused to let him submit a fresh assignment.
In a VCAT hearing, Mr Naik said he had been “clearly subjected” to a detriment under the Equal Opportunity Act “of being forever denied of completing his task”, after the board changed its policy so that students could not submit further deferred exams or assessment tasks more than 12 months after the end of the examination period for the unit the student was enrolled in.
Mr Naik called for an “unconditional apology for such predatory and victimising behaviour from the top-level management of Monash University”, as well $100,000 in damages suffered as a result of the alleged victimisation and a written assurance that “such an abuse of power” would not happen again.
But tribunal member Barry Josephs dismissed Mr Naik’s claim, labelling it “manifestly hopeless, undoubtedly untenable … and bound to fail”.
Maybe if Chinmay Naik invested the same time and energy into his studies he would have learned the subject matter and passed.
Enrolling and paying course fees does not buy a passing grade. It buys one the opportunity to receive an education in a specific subject which requires completing all of the course material as a minimum, as well as attending and actively engaging in classes.
It is then up to the student to meet the academic standards when completing assessments by demonstrating they understand the subject matter and can apply it to related tasks / problems.
One wonders who is paying Chinmay Naik’s legal fees? It better not be funded in any way by taxpayers via legal aid.
Chinmay Naik’s poor behaviour should not be tolerated. If he does not pass his studies, his student visa should be immediately revoked and he should be sent home at the first available opportunity.
His actions should also preclude him from gaining a post study work visa or permanent residency.
