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.

Ok sure. Goodbye

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.

lol you sound naive. The fees are the fees as set by government. The high fees doesn’t equal spectacular quality - there’s no correlation. Unis everywhere are like this in England.

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

again a weird comment - did you go to uni yourself? You’re supposed to spend more time independently learning vs being taught lol. It’s supposed to be like 30% classroom 70% independent learning

I hadn't realised there were the issues that have been flagged with the fake tests etc so I'm glad I posted to find out more.

We just need to make the decision to stay with the uni tell my daughter to stop helping and get her head down and get on with it.

Or move uni.

Yes I went to uni and did the same degree my daughter is doing.

I also meant the costs of fees and the expense of London combined.

Are they actually being mean and excluding your daughter by speaking in their own language??

Equally they might be being deliberately obtuse to get her to do the lion's share of the project/joint work?

It is not racist to point out that high levels of recruitment in China for UK universities has resulted in large numbers of Chinese students entering the university system here without the required language skills to benefit from the experience.

UK universities are milking Chinese students for all the money they can get, and letting them down in the process. They know their language levels aren't good enough, and yet they accept them anyway because they are a cash cow.

This all results in everyone having a poorer educational experience. It's a racket and it's a terrible shame for everyone involved.

Sorry also not the case with creative degrees, it's mostly group work, class and little theory so the balance is different to an academic degree.

I believe you. We 3 student who I am VERY sure could not have pass IELTS. I am ESL as well.
She and the others need to say no. It's uncomfortable but it's something that needs to be done.

OP you are getting a hard time on here from some with but having worked across many unis in the sector for 20+ years, your daughters experience, especially with group work, is far from uncommon. The whole HE system now is so dependent on overseas student money that it has changed many courses for the worse in terms of dynamics between students, huge cohorts in some subjects and overall dips in student satisfaction. Both Uk and International students have a poor experience in many unis. The language entry system is widely known to be not fit for purpose and it particularly bad in pockets in f the sector.
However, if I was your daughter I'd be asking questions of lecturers about how group work is to be marked fairly to take into account differing level of input/engagement. Depending on the answer she could then informally or formally raise it - there will be info on how to do this via a rep or complaints process on the unis student intranet. Swapping to a different uni or leaving should be a last resort. It could be a real confidence boost to her if she is able to find a solution to this issue herself.
This thread neatly demonstrates that it is currently not possible to discuss impacts of the seismic changes which have taken place across HE in recent years without thinly veiled racism accusations. But it is way more complex and hard to see how it will improve any time soon.

I know someone doing a fashion design degree, over half the students on her course are Asian, mainly from China.

Actually I've just checked, and there are indeed a lot of Chinese students at UAL - 4,000 in 2021/2 (obviously spread across all 7? Colleges) - they're about 20% of all undergrads.

Two things I need to correct from your post. Students usually wouldn't be admitted nor given visa is they don't have IELTS or TOEFL. However, there are centres where the exams are sat for pupils so it could be that these came from one of such.

Secondly there is no requirement or guarantee that they will return after graduation. In fact it is used as a route for migration as they're given visas to stay and work afterwards including dependants. There're plans to review this.

Yes but despite that being the requirement, many of them have very poor English. Either the standard is too low or there are students who don't meet the standard somehow achieving it on the IELTS.

This is obviously not the same Uni - the race descriptions are clearly American! Central St Martin's is in London - hth

There're many centres where you can have it done for you. It's not a secret.

My friends has a daughter in her second year here, her other daughter finished her course there a few years ago. I’ve just sent my friend this thread and this is not her daughters‘ experience at all. 🤔

@AgnesX no they are not being mean to her at all.

She's feeling frustrated with the level of teaching being so low as the lecturer is having to explain creative concepts over and over again. And she just wants to get on with work.

Not just unies where this was happening. I know of different nationality where families (like cousins etc) look often very similar and they used to occasionally mention sitting things for each other like B1 English tests etc.
It does happen. And it's not racists to say people from x have issues recognising people from Y and vice versa. It's actually quite interesting.

Haven’t read the full thread so sorry if it’s already been mentioned, but it’s no longer actually required to have the English test as part of the visa application, for a degree level course. The university can do their own assessment and then certify on their CAS that the student meets the requirement. Reputable universities will of course check this properly, but I’m sure many universities see the ££££ coming in from the foreign students and I can imagine them turning a blind eye to someone who really has poor language skills.

If you wanted to OP you could threaten to report the uni to the UKVI, but I am sure that won’t help your child.

Again im not sure by I would make this up?
I mean I can post the register if you'd like. 🙄

Thank you so much for your post.

Similar situation on my sons course (also creative). Not as many Chinese students as on your daughters course but those that are, barely speak English.

Wow when did this requirement get removed? It hasn't been mentioned no. The general gist is that you need to have a level but then apparently lots of cheating if the system has been happening.

I don’t know why some posters are doubting the poor English skills of some students. It’s nothing new either. I used to do some supervisions and marking when I was a phd student and the level of English comprehension and writing was extremely low for some students. I used to think it was unfair that they could gain a degree despite this, as it would be reasonable for future employers to assume that anyone with a degree from a well-regarded British university would be able to speak good English.

Thank you, I started to think my daughter was exaggerating but she tells me they are crying in some cases with frustration and worry.