Universities flout rules on English expertise

The national higher education regulator has found that a quarter of universities have a ‘potential risk of noncompliance’ with English language standards required for overseas students.

TEQSA chief executive Alistair Maclean.

The national higher education regulator has found that a quarter of universities have a “potential risk of noncompliance” with Eng­lish language standards required for overseas students.

The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency said in its 2020 Compliance Report that 10 of 40 universities had enrolled high numbers of international students whose English language proficiency level was not recorded in enough detail to be audited by the regulator.

The agency said the 10 universities were overusing a generic ­description of a student’s English levels that “limited visibility of … records to ensure compliance with English language requirements”.

TEQSA also criticised the 10 universities for not properly using the information they recorded about international student’s academic performance “to monitor, test and adjust policy, including — importantly — (student) admissions policy”.

“Most of the (education) providers examined had some form of cohort analysis and tracking,” the agency said.

“The analysis was limited and did not track poorly performing student cohorts and academic misconduct issues back to the student entry pathways, country/­region of origin, or (education) agents. Identifying and understanding these risks is critical to informing an appropriate response, including any adjustments to English language admission requirements.”

TEQSA did not name the 10 universities but said six of them had been named in media reporting on international student Eng­lish language standards.

Universities to come under the media spotlight for admitting international students with insufficient English include Murdoch University, Monash University and the University of Tasmania.

The report said all the universities had “undertaken significant work to improve admission and governance practices, and most had implemented comprehensive changes to mitigate future risks” but some universities had not “reviewed or benchmarked their admissions practices for a considerable period of time”.

The report said the top governing bodies of some universities — their councils or senates — were not overseeing these risks.

“Some governing bodies lacked oversight of admissions practices and could not be confident admissions policies and procedures were being applied consistently,” it said.

The agency has asked some universities that were in the early stages of improving their practices to give “further assurance that these improvements were being sustained”.

In the report, the agency said it had seen a 36 per cent rise in the number of complaints about universities and other higher education providers in 2020.

The total of 560 complaints received in 2020 included 98 related to COVID-19. They included complaints about the quality of online learning, exam invigilation, courses being suspended or the disruption of practical work and placements.

TEQSA said in the report it had been active in disciplining universities and other higher education providers in 2020, placing 24 conditions on registration and 16 conditions on course accreditation, which acted as a warning to address noncompliance.

It said at the end of last year, 180 active conditions were requiring a provider to address a problem. They applied to five universities and 56 other higher education providers.

TEQSA chief executive Alistair Maclean said in the report that the pandemic had been a “significant disruption” to the higher education sector.