University cleared of misconduct

A UNIVERSITY accused of ripping off international students has been ordered to get rid of any online marketing material that could mislead potential students about its Melbourne campus.

A UNIVERSITY accused of ripping off international students has been ordered to get rid of any online marketing material that could mislead potential students about its Melbourne campus.

A Victorian government review of Central Queensland University revealed problems with some of its business subjects and found that its website could mislead international students.

The review was ordered by Victorian Skills Minister Jacinta Allan in March after international students complained they were being failed by CQU as a "revenue-raising exercise".

The investigation cleared the university of any serious misconduct or non-compliance to regulations and found allegations that the university was mistreating international students could not be substantiated.

But the review, chaired by Kwong Lee Dow, did find parts of the CQU website describing the nature of the university's campuses may have led students to "inaccurate conclusions" about the Melbourne site. "It would be in CQU's interest to conduct a quality audit of its website and publications to eliminate possibly misleading information," the report read.

The review panel also found there were problems with the postgraduate business subjects at the centre of the student complaints and recommended improving curriculum and assessment formulation.

Professor Lee Dow said the fact that most academics who set curriculum and assessment were based at the Rockhampton campus in Queensland was a problem identified by the panel. He said issues facing the mostly domestic students at Rockhampton were very different to those faced by international students at the Melbourne campus.

"There are particular issues with international students coming into big cities," he said.

"And we just felt that there was not sufficient understanding of that coming from some of the people who are directly responsible for these individual subjects."

Professor Lee Dow said at "one level" all international students were in part cash cows for Australian universities.

"The question is whether it's getting a lot worse with CQU than the others," he said.

Ms Allan said the review identified a number of issues that needed to be addressed by the end of November or CQU would face further action.