Uni and foreign students would you say anything?

[thebraispink]

My DD is at uni doing a creative subject and basically she is having to help and support all of the foreign students with their work.

The uni have taken on so so many students who don't speak English over 60% of her course and put no translators in place, so my DD is having to help explain everything to those poor students who have broken English at best.

The uni has literally just taken all the money, it's making my DD course really dumbed down and keeping her back, it's not great for the foreign students as they are pretty out of their depth and miserable.

From my stance we are paying a shit ton for this course, and its teaching is poor and the overall experience is a bit shit.

All of these students will leave after 3 years, and take this education to their countries which is great but it leaves the UK students with a sub standard experience and shitty degree.

Should there be a limits on how many students can be from overseas? Should the uni have to provide interpreters? Is anyone else's kids in the same situation?

We are considering moving her from the uni on these grounds as she spends more time helping her peers than she does being taught.

In order for an overseas student to be awarded a student visa, they need an IELTS or similar certificate showing their competence in English language.

The trouble is that the less discerning universities don't check the IELTS certificates at source, and they are widely available for about €200 on the internet. There was an ad on MN a while ago for one. Some universities just want the foreign currency because it subsidises the fees of UK students.

It's a shame but I'd complain very loudly to the university. If it doesn't get any better, you could report the university to JISC or the Home Office. I'm not sure it will get you anywhere though.

Thanks - she isn't running to me" we are simply talking about her course how's it going and she showed me the register and spoke about having to explain everything a few times over to her group she's been put in.

And had spoken since starting about how upset and miserable the students are, crying in lessons when asked to present work and really struggling.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4937207-being-frustrated-with-my-students?reply=130545886

This was a similar thread from a uni lecturer saying about lack of English from her students

Unfortunately I agree with previous posters that there is quite a lot of fraudulent activity around the English tests.

@CousinGreg55 thank you I'll have a read.

Now thanks to asking I'm able to give her the information to ask if the uni and find out if they have actually followed the correct procedures for entry

You sound more ridiculous every time you post. Can you actually hear yourself?

Are you actually saying that a whole load of different organization/departments inside and outside of the university have been in cahoots to admit students with limited English? Do you have an idea at all of what the visa process involves?

Please do yourself a favour and read up on things before you go and check up on whether correct procedures were followed when the foreign students applied for Uni in the Uk.

Oh dear, you’re really not coming across very well.

Yes I'm just going to give her this thread so she can move forward.

Well just tell her she won't be explaining going forward...why would she, it isn't her problem. Take it higher, she really shouldn't be dealing with this.

If they're on student visas, they will have to have demonstrated that they have a reasonable level of English language proficiency, so I suspect that your dd is exaggerating somewhat. Or else she is just misjudging the situation - a lot of Chinese students tend to have poor confidence in speaking English but much better writing and comprehension skills.

Some universities do accept international students with slightly lower requirements than they probably should (though they still have to meet home office requirements for the visas), and no, this isn't ideal. The problem is that they need those international students for the income that they bring in...effectively, they are subsidising British students who pay lower fees.

If your dd is unhappy about what she is being asked to do to help other students, she should put in a complaint about this so that it can be properly investigated.

What do you mean she showed you the register?

I was questioning her 60% of students are foreign myself so she showed me the names on the register.

I also suspected she may have exaggerated as well.

I work in a university that has a large proportion of overseas students. Of course it’s true that they have to have IELTS etc, but nevertheless a lot of them have very poor English and I’m amazed that they managed to pass something of that standard. In some cases I think there’s some strategic incompetence- especially if they are challenged when they’ve done something wrong or failed to do something- lots of blank confused looks and not answering what they have been asked in simple English. Either they do understand and are pretending not to, or they don’t understand and their English is not up to scratch. It’s possible that your daughter’s fellow students are simply lazy, and have found a good way to get someone else to do the bulk of the group work.

Your daughter shouldn’t be asked to support other students at all. The staff should be supporting any students who are struggling. She should speak to the course director and explain that this is affecting her own work. It might be that one of two lecturers have gone a bit rogue, and this shouldn’t be happening.

Lots of Chinese students doing creative degrees? Yeah sure....

How did she gain access to the whole cohort register?

IELTS 5.5 is CEFR level B1/2. You can have basic conversations about a range of topics. I speak another language to B2/C1 level (so 6 or 6.5) and can talk to native speakers reasonably easily about lots of things but it gets tiring- I also struggle to discuss anything that had its own technical vocabulary e.g politics, law, medicine etc and can give presentations but only with a lot of preparation time.

Sounds exactly like my time at Central Saint Martins - 80% if my class was foreign students! No advice but sympathy for your daughter as it does change course dynamics x

Not sure what purpose you serve being so nasty? I asked a question, I'm getting lots of helpful advice.

I really don't care how I come across to you.

Yep, was certainly the case at UAL. Used to be a huge cohort of Chinese students especially on the textiles degree!

Not sure why you are getting such a hard time from some posters OP, some very odd, aggressive posts.

🤔

Thanks you, that's her uni as well so I guess it hasn't changed?

I knew it would be as soon as I read your post! I ended up leaving in my third year, this was in 2011, due to the poor standard of teaching and course dynamics! Sad to hear they’re still money grabbing and living on their past reputation.

I guess some posters are bored.

She's is 2nd year now and we really barely able to afford her to go and with this I'm thinking we may have to look elsewhere as for all of its "hype" I'm not sure the teaching is going to get her far in the Industry.