{"id":47826,"date":"2019-05-07T13:53:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T20:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=47826"},"modified":"2019-05-07T13:57:19","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T20:57:19","slug":"are-international-students-passing-university-courses-at-the-same-rate-as-domestic-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/are-international-students-passing-university-courses-at-the-same-rate-as-domestic-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Are international students passing university courses at the same rate as domestic students?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nMonday night\u2019s\u00a0ABC Four Corners<\/a>\u00a0program alleged several universities were admitting international students without the English-language skills needed to successfully complete their courses, effectively setting them up to fail.<\/p>\n

Such claims have been made so often, including by\u00a0government<\/a>\u00a0agencies<\/a>, that there is little doubt problems exist. But just how widespread these problems are is hard to assess. One potential method is to look at the pass\/fail rates of international students.<\/p>\n

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In responding to Four Corners, Chair of Universities Australia, Professor Margaret Gardner,\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0international and domestic students had similar pass rates. If international students were admitted without the necessary language skills we would expect them to fail at higher rates than their domestic classmates.<\/p>\n

Success of undergraduate international students<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In 2016, international bachelor students\u00a0failed 15% of all the subjects they attempted<\/a>, compared to a 14% fail rate for domestic students. These are figures for commencing students, which means for the year they were admitted. Later-year students have lower fail rates.<\/p>\n

Although international students overall fail a larger share of the subjects they take than domestic students, this is at least partly because they mostly take IT, engineering or commerce courses. These fields have above-average fail rates for domestic students too, suggesting they are difficult or admission requirement issues affect both international and domestic students.<\/p>\n

To fairly assess international student performance it\u2019s best to look at comparisons within these courses.<\/p>\n

In recent years international and domestic bachelor-degree IT commencing students have failed subjects at similar rates. In each case, more than 20% of all subjects were failed. Although fail rates are trending down, both student groups have strikingly high fail rates.
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