It’s not fair to blame the international students but instead the institutions who have let them in. Of course if you are given the opportunity to go to uni in the UK you’ll take it . It’s the universities job to make sure you are fit to study not your own discretion. Greedy institutions who only want money
EvilTaffyapple on
I experienced this myself when I used to work at a bank.
We were considered a “student branch”, as we were opposite the University. We used to have thousands of students from Asia come every summer with tens of thousands of pounds in carrier bags, all wanting to open accounts.
Hardly any of them spoke enough English to be able to open an account – we often wondered how they would study a course for a year or two.
corbynista2029 on
This is wholly expected if you cap the amount you can charge domestic students and don’t adjust it to inflation despite some 30% in inflation. Every domestic student you take on is a financial loss that can only be covered by bringing in international students. So as the number of international students that you need to bring in goes up, the admission requirement for these students will eventually go down to balance the books.
Wholly expected and will get worse, but the government has refused to do anything about it.
SnowflakesOut on
There are many asian (mostly Chinese) students who do not speak English and they always have that one friend who translates for them. I never really got how they pass their courses or even IELTS English test that most universities require.
Manoj109 on
Most of it is a racket anyway .
And outside of the STEMS most of the courses have no relevance to these students country or origin and cannot be applied when they move back home.
For example: I have seen students who studied criminology in the UK and when they moved back to their country of origin,due to the culture, local least and customs the social environment, mores etc the UK criminology degree was of use
PLPQ on
My law course has a Chinese chap. He cannot speak a word of English. I sometimes spy him in class translating the slides to Chinese. He never voluntarily answers questions. He’s always looking at vintage, replica weapons and anime in lectures and yet he got through year 1, 2 and, I suspect, 3.
I’m unsure how he’s pulling this off. I really am.
FishUK_Harp on
I’m a former English language teacher who has since worked at a University in an unrelated student-facing role. I can say with a reasonably degree of expertise that a lot of foreign students do not speak English well enough to have passed the required qualifications to att and university in the UK (IELTS being the most common). This is not just a case of teaching to the test, as their English is often below that standard. I suspect there is widespread fraud, with people being given certificates they aren’t good enough to pass for, or straight-up fabrication.
Madness_Quotient on
Being able to speak English, and being able to keep up with native British speakers at full speed using advanced/technical language are very different things.
Greedy_Librarian_983 on
That’s a new thing??? Did you know that some of them even buy a fake driver license in their country (mostly china) and apply for international driving permit
Ethroptur on
Hence why we need English proficiency criteria for international students.
JayR_97 on
I have first hand experience of this. There were multiple students on my IT masters degree who could barely string an English sentence together. It was incredibly frustrating for the lecturers
Haunting_Bison_2470 on
Yep, I’ve seen it first hand.
I teach postgrad masters at a Russell group and some students’ English is so bad, you cannot understand what it is they’re trying to say.
Most students are aware of this and try their best, but we do have some that complain when we fail them. Years ago, when I was still a teaching assistant, a student complained about me because I failed her written assignment and suggested she go see the English as a foreign language centre for help. Turns out, she was a scholarship student from Latvia, who had been top of her class. She’d email us in panic at 2am, makes you wonder.
On_The_Blindside on
I’ve had first hand experience of being forced to work with international students who couldn’t string a sentence together let alone understand the material. It ended up with my and 1 other guy basically doing the entire design project ourselves without them, both us us doing an extra 1.5 peoples work. It was infuriating.
We tried complaining to the university but they did nothing about it.
I get we need international students to come here, but we also need to not damage our own education to support them.
For anyone wondering this was an engineering degree, not some mickey mouse rubbish.
going_down_leg on
They aren’t here to learn, they’re here to fund our broken university system because they are charged more than domestic students
terrordactyl1971 on
I suppose if you can’t speak the language then you’ve wasted your money and fail the degree course. Shrugs shoulders. Tough titties really
Fresh_Mountain_Snow on
This has been the case for 20+ years. I met students decades ago who couldn’t speak English, or barely. It’s hard to enter a country fluent enough to follow along but you’d expect they can by the time they leave.
ConnectPreference166 on
I used to work for an university and can 100% vouch for this. Lecturer’s had a hard time teaching because students didn’t have enough fluency in English to understand the teaching or course. The problem is the universities only care about money. They’ll take students in knowing they can’t keep up, but they’ll pocket their cash.
TanteJu5 on
Diploma mills gonna mill. These are probably Chinese students. Not only in the UK but also when I was in a Russian university, they couldn’t formulate a coherent sentence in Russian.
Bunion-Bhaji on
This is widely known. Universities sell visas. And people wonder why the housing crisis is what it is.
imsickoftryingthis on
Had this at University. MSc course and there were a few Chinese students – they didn’t mingle with any of the English / EU students or speak in general. I spoke to my mentor at the end of the year and a number of them failed the course because they couldn’t speak/write understand English. The Unis are clearly more than happy to take their international fees.
cloud1445 on
As long as they keep paying their fees though right?
namtaruu on
One of my friend used to tutoring uni students, who studied different type of IT classes. He had mostly Middle Eastern students and sometimes he had to start from basic English knowledge, because they didn’t understand words like “temperature”, “then” and “equation”. Sometimes it wasn’t even just a language issue, but they missed the meaning as well. He was also asked by one of these students to write the thesis for him. I was totally astonished he made it to the end of the course, with all the gaps in his knowledge to even *think* about needing a thesis. He refused, but I’m sure the guy found someone else.
22 Comments
It’s not fair to blame the international students but instead the institutions who have let them in. Of course if you are given the opportunity to go to uni in the UK you’ll take it . It’s the universities job to make sure you are fit to study not your own discretion. Greedy institutions who only want money
I experienced this myself when I used to work at a bank.
We were considered a “student branch”, as we were opposite the University. We used to have thousands of students from Asia come every summer with tens of thousands of pounds in carrier bags, all wanting to open accounts.
Hardly any of them spoke enough English to be able to open an account – we often wondered how they would study a course for a year or two.
This is wholly expected if you cap the amount you can charge domestic students and don’t adjust it to inflation despite some 30% in inflation. Every domestic student you take on is a financial loss that can only be covered by bringing in international students. So as the number of international students that you need to bring in goes up, the admission requirement for these students will eventually go down to balance the books.
Wholly expected and will get worse, but the government has refused to do anything about it.
There are many asian (mostly Chinese) students who do not speak English and they always have that one friend who translates for them. I never really got how they pass their courses or even IELTS English test that most universities require.
Most of it is a racket anyway .
And outside of the STEMS most of the courses have no relevance to these students country or origin and cannot be applied when they move back home.
For example: I have seen students who studied criminology in the UK and when they moved back to their country of origin,due to the culture, local least and customs the social environment, mores etc the UK criminology degree was of use
My law course has a Chinese chap. He cannot speak a word of English. I sometimes spy him in class translating the slides to Chinese. He never voluntarily answers questions. He’s always looking at vintage, replica weapons and anime in lectures and yet he got through year 1, 2 and, I suspect, 3.
I’m unsure how he’s pulling this off. I really am.
I’m a former English language teacher who has since worked at a University in an unrelated student-facing role. I can say with a reasonably degree of expertise that a lot of foreign students do not speak English well enough to have passed the required qualifications to att and university in the UK (IELTS being the most common). This is not just a case of teaching to the test, as their English is often below that standard. I suspect there is widespread fraud, with people being given certificates they aren’t good enough to pass for, or straight-up fabrication.
Being able to speak English, and being able to keep up with native British speakers at full speed using advanced/technical language are very different things.
That’s a new thing??? Did you know that some of them even buy a fake driver license in their country (mostly china) and apply for international driving permit
Hence why we need English proficiency criteria for international students.
I have first hand experience of this. There were multiple students on my IT masters degree who could barely string an English sentence together. It was incredibly frustrating for the lecturers
Yep, I’ve seen it first hand.
I teach postgrad masters at a Russell group and some students’ English is so bad, you cannot understand what it is they’re trying to say.
Most students are aware of this and try their best, but we do have some that complain when we fail them. Years ago, when I was still a teaching assistant, a student complained about me because I failed her written assignment and suggested she go see the English as a foreign language centre for help. Turns out, she was a scholarship student from Latvia, who had been top of her class. She’d email us in panic at 2am, makes you wonder.
I’ve had first hand experience of being forced to work with international students who couldn’t string a sentence together let alone understand the material. It ended up with my and 1 other guy basically doing the entire design project ourselves without them, both us us doing an extra 1.5 peoples work. It was infuriating.
We tried complaining to the university but they did nothing about it.
I get we need international students to come here, but we also need to not damage our own education to support them.
For anyone wondering this was an engineering degree, not some mickey mouse rubbish.
They aren’t here to learn, they’re here to fund our broken university system because they are charged more than domestic students
I suppose if you can’t speak the language then you’ve wasted your money and fail the degree course. Shrugs shoulders. Tough titties really
This has been the case for 20+ years. I met students decades ago who couldn’t speak English, or barely. It’s hard to enter a country fluent enough to follow along but you’d expect they can by the time they leave.
I used to work for an university and can 100% vouch for this. Lecturer’s had a hard time teaching because students didn’t have enough fluency in English to understand the teaching or course. The problem is the universities only care about money. They’ll take students in knowing they can’t keep up, but they’ll pocket their cash.
Diploma mills gonna mill. These are probably Chinese students. Not only in the UK but also when I was in a Russian university, they couldn’t formulate a coherent sentence in Russian.
This is widely known. Universities sell visas. And people wonder why the housing crisis is what it is.
Had this at University. MSc course and there were a few Chinese students – they didn’t mingle with any of the English / EU students or speak in general. I spoke to my mentor at the end of the year and a number of them failed the course because they couldn’t speak/write understand English. The Unis are clearly more than happy to take their international fees.
As long as they keep paying their fees though right?
One of my friend used to tutoring uni students, who studied different type of IT classes. He had mostly Middle Eastern students and sometimes he had to start from basic English knowledge, because they didn’t understand words like “temperature”, “then” and “equation”. Sometimes it wasn’t even just a language issue, but they missed the meaning as well. He was also asked by one of these students to write the thesis for him. I was totally astonished he made it to the end of the course, with all the gaps in his knowledge to even *think* about needing a thesis. He refused, but I’m sure the guy found someone else.