Last updated: 18/06/08
Whistleblower blows lid on overseas degrees

Overseas students who can barely speak English are still being awarded degrees claims a whistleblowing academic.

The academic who teaches at a world famous UK university and wishes to remain anonymous states that students lacking even the most basic English language skills are being awarded postgraduate degrees.

Academics now fear that financial pressures to recruit overseas students for money rather than ability could threaten the credibility of degrees.

Overseas students are seen as an important source of income with the Higher Education Policy Institute calculating payments to universities of almost £1.5bn per year in fees plus £2.2bn in living costs.

The whistleblower describes a postgraduate system where lecturers are expected to teach overseas students who have only limited English. These students, who pay an average of about £19,000 per year, will in theory have passed English language proficiency tests, but there are questions about the reliability of such evidence.

"For example, last week I tried to speak to a student who could not understand a simple request; in the end, we had to resort to pen and paper," writes the whistleblower, who works at a leading Russell Group university.

"Someone who needs to communicate using pictures is, to say the least, unlikely to have passed the language proficiency test by themselves."

He also said that once these students have arrived, taking into account the fees they pay, it is often difficult to fail them or send them home. He highlighted the frustration of fellow academics at this situation.

Whilst there is much competition for undergraduate places at the university, the whistleblower claims that it is much easier for overseas students to find places on taught postgraduate courses.

It is unusual for students to fail postgraduate courses with there being no national figures.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency says that its record-keeping on degree levels "does not explicitly contain the concept of 'failing' a course".

The overall category for those who leave, drop out or fail, known as "left with no award" is 10.9%.