Anidav posted:

So my Facebook account got banned for posting about the planes from yesterday. Reason Given: Suspicious Activity.

ewe2 posted:

Can you do a screenshot so I can tweet the gently caress out of it?

CROWS EVERYWHERE posted:

Do this please!

Anidav posted:

Sorry, I already did the account recovery process with my G20 post deleted. It was a soft ban.

ewe2 posted:

No that was anything but "soft", that was shut the gently caress up, peasant. Oh well, I'll have to disappoint the militant twitter army now.

quote:

@latikambourke posted:
PM Abbott on China-US climate deal. 'I'm focusing not on what might happen in 16 years' time.'

quote:

Whistleblowing academics have accused their universities of contributing to systemic cheating by welcoming international students who are "functionally illiterate" because they rely so heavily on their fees.

Some academics claim they have urged their university leaders to raise the English proficiency requirements but their concerns have been largely ignored because they are at odds with financial imperatives.

Yingying Dou, director of the MyMaster website, at work on Monday.
Yingying Dou, director of the MyMaster website, at work on Monday. Photo: Dominic Lorrimer
International education contributes $15 billion annually to the Australian economy. At some universities, international students account for more than 30 percent of revenue.

On Wednesday Fairfax Media exposed an online business called MyMaster, run out of Sydney's Chinatown, that had provided more than 900 assignments to students from almost every university in NSW, turning over at least $160,000 this year.

The website has since been taken down and Yingying Dou, the sole director of MyMaster, did not turn up to work on Wednesday.

Following the MyMaster revelations, scores of similar websites have come to light, revealing a burgeoning online black market.

More than 20 disgruntled academics contacted Fairfax Media on Wednesday expressing frustration at the widespread problem they say has been undermining the integrity of their institutions.

Dr McComas Taylor, the head of the Australian National University's South Asian Program, said universities were "very reluctant to do anything to upset this revenue stream".

"Just as governments have become addicted to gambling revenues from poker machines, universities have become addicted to revenue streams from international students," he said.

Dr Taylor said some international students who had met the language requirements were "functionally illiterate".

"If you let in a student who can't read, write or speak English at a sufficiently high level, it's a very natural consequence that they're going to end up cheating like this."

One professor from a business school at a NSW university said he had students whose English was so poor they routinely came to his office with an interpreter.

He said there was "unbelieveable pressure" to pass international students from university administrators who "don't want a cool flow of income being interrupted by real world problems".

"It's completely destroying our universities," he said. "It's buggering the thing for everyone."



Another experienced professor told Fairfax Media he retired some years ago "because of the practice and, in part, because the universities turned a blind eye to it".

While a spokesman for Education Minister Christopher Pyne said there would be "very severe consequences" for those caught cheating, the federal government encouraged more international students to study in Australia.

"We want to encourage it, not just because of the revenue international students bring to universities and our wider economy when they live and study in Australia, but also the networks established with other students and institutions that benefit our country throughout our region and the rest of the world," he said.

Andrew Norton, the higher education program director for the Grattan Institute, says international students are the "key profit making business" for Australian universities and they are increasingly supporting their overall operations.

International students often pay more than three times as much as locals for their degrees, up to $40,000 a year.

At the University of NSW international student fees contributed almost $350 million last year, about a third of the total $1.1 billion revenue. At Macquarie University, almost a quarter of total revenue came from international students.

The international reputation of Australia's universities was absolutely critical to the wellbeing of the entire education system, according to Labor's higher education spokesman, Senator Kim Carr.

"We simply can't afford to have matters of this seriousness arising in a manner which does profound damage, if unattended, to the entire education system," he said. "The allegations cannot be allowed to go unanswered."
Almost every university approached by Fairfax Media denied requests for interviews on Wednesday but insisted the problem was confined to a very small number of students and there were systems in place to catch offenders.

Only one - the University of Wollongong- asked Fairfax Media to provide the data that would help them investigate the offending students.

The deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Wollongong, Professor Eeva Leinonen, said she was "concerned and disappointed" to learn students had paid for essays and insisted the university would investigate.

However, academics who contacted Fairfax Media on the condition of anonymity, fearing professional consequences from their universities, rejected the official line from the affected universities that the cheating was limited to a select few.

"We have really, really systemic problems with dishonesty in our student body," one senior lecturer said, adding that pressures on academics to produce research papers meant few had the time or energy to pursue disciplinary action against cheating students.

"It works the whole way up the university chain," she said. "At every point you would encounter somebody who just wants it to go away."

Another lecturer told Fairfax Media some of his Chinese students who had limited English skills produced suspiciously exceptional essays but said he was left with "no choice but to give them a high-distinction because their essays are of such high standards".

Associate Professor Chris Ziguras, an international education researcher at RMIT University in Melbourne, said the problem of buying essays was common but not limited to international students.

"In subjects where students are submitting written work, it's a problem that's very widespread and that we're dealing with on a daily basis in academia," he said.

gay picnic defence posted:

I don't know if anyone has posted this yet: http://www.theage.com.au/national/e...112-11lbdi.html


Who would have thought that making the universities desperate for cash would result in compromised education? I've known this has been happening for years, back in 2010 one of my lectures told me that there was always pressure to pass people. They'd fail their assignments throughout the year, but would mysteriously do well enough on the exam to achieve a final mark in the 50s. Of course the students would just be happy to have passed after failing throughout the semester and wouldn't ask any questions. This was at Adelaide University's winemaking and viticulture course which is one of the top 3 universities for that course in the world, so I'd hate to think what has been taking place in the less prestigious courses in universities around the nation. My current university in Melbourne talks tough when it comes to plagiarism but when it actually happens they tiptoe around it and just give extensions, and pass poor quality work. They post exam questions online a week before we sit the exam, which at a Masters level is staggering, and then during one exam the lecturer just let a couple of guys talk and look up answers on their phones.

Unfortunately I don't see anything changing while the current bunch of flogs are in government. Maybe the backlash from students will force some action.

in the miso soup posted:

Milky Moor posted:

Which Uni are you at? I hope it's the one I finished up at earlier this year because, yeah, they really don't give a poo poo and will pass anything and anyone and I knowingly took advantage of this when submitting work.

It's incredibly damaging to the reputation of the Universities, the value of a degree (or a second degree) and it makes things more difficult for international students because the general consensus is that they're passing and doing less work to do it.

gay picnic defence posted:

I'm at LaTrobe. People are blowing up over it on facebook, and it does seem to be hurting the reputation of international students. Some of it is justified because there are some deadset no-hopers out there but I really feel for the ones who are actually doing the hard yards and earning their degree.

gay picnic defence posted:

I'm at LaTrobe. People are blowing up over it on facebook, and it does seem to be hurting the reputation of international students. Some of it is justified because there are some deadset no-hopers out there but I really feel for the ones who are actually doing the hard yards and earning their degree.

Anidav posted:

Not a single homeless person or Big Issue salesman in Brisbane today. I wonder where the police took them.

adamantium|wang posted:

Milky Moor posted:

I was at Melbourne. For all their rep, they never cared about quality work.

What was incredibly bizarre, and this is something I still don't understand given how the course worked, is at my graduation, there were so many international students who I had never seen on campus during my Masters of Teaching. The cohort was so small and tight-knit that you generally recognised everyone (shared compulsary subjects, placements, all in one building, etc) - and then it just seemed to double in size on that evening with all these people no one knew or recognized.

Gough Suppressant posted:

What kind of a loving gutless worm was doing this interview and allowed that answer to just go by unchallenged.

gay picnic defence posted:

Yeah its the same for my classes during the exams. Suddenly the class is 3 times the size and there aren't enough seats for everyone in the lecture theater. I'll probably move to a different uni next year some time, I'll decide which one based on the responses to this issue I reckon.

Nibbles! posted:

I imagine these days there's a large number that don't bother coming to campus and catch up online.

Quantum Mechanic posted:

NOPE

Sydney Greens pre-date the Tasmanian Greens

quote:

Controversial unionist Kathy Jackson will be referred to Victoria Police for criminal investigation over the theft of about $900,000 from the Health Services Union.

Zenithe posted:

fucken lol

AVeryLargeRadish posted:

They should be mad at the university for slackening their standards and at the government for underfunding the universities and at their parents and elders for voting the bastards in.

WebDog posted:

Can someone sum up the whole Kathy Jackson thing.
From what I can gather she was championed as a whistle blower in the Thompson scandal, then it was discovered she's been up to no good herself. So I'm curious to why did the Libs cozy up to her in the first place? And why does that revelation of her misdoing scare them off when you sort of have an perfect example of a Union secretary being corrupt as they come - surely she'd be the perfect example to fire the Royal Commission at?

Splode posted:

Universities man.

The concept of "Accept any international student for those big dollars, regardless of their ability to communicate" is combined with "Make everything group work so it's easier to mark" is a loving catastrophe.

I was receiving desperate emails sent by international students to everyone in the subject asking to join a group, and I've had lecturers actually say "international students don't all form a group together because none of you will have any contacts in Australia that you'll need to do the assignment*"

Thing is, ABSOLUTELY NOBODY will actually respond to these emails. You'd have to be insane. Picking group members you don't know personally is a crapshoot already. Add in a high chance that the candidate barely speaks English and won't be able to write anything that doesn't take hours to edit, and you've got yourself a terrible choice. You could argue that its racist, but group projects are all about communication. Generally, the groups made of exclusively international kids will do pretty well in practical tasks, if they're all from the same place, because they all speak the same first language.

*It was an assignment where you had to go and interview someone at a related company.

Tony Abbott posted:

'I'm focusing not on what might happen in 16 years' time.'

Splode posted:

Universities man.

The concept of "Accept any international student for those big dollars, regardless of their ability to communicate" is combined with "Make everything group work so it's easier to mark" is a loving catastrophe.

I was receiving desperate emails sent by international students to everyone in the subject asking to join a group, and I've had lecturers actually say "international students don't all form a group together because none of you will have any contacts in Australia that you'll need to do the assignment*"

Thing is, ABSOLUTELY NOBODY will actually respond to these emails. You'd have to be insane. Picking group members you don't know personally is a crapshoot already. Add in a high chance that the candidate barely speaks English and won't be able to write anything that doesn't take hours to edit, and you've got yourself a terrible choice. You could argue that its racist, but group projects are all about communication. Generally, the groups made of exclusively international kids will do pretty well in practical tasks, if they're all from the same place, because they all speak the same first language.

*It was an assignment where you had to go and interview someone at a related company.

Cartoon posted:

That's a pretty fair summation.

Traitor inside union decides to use Liberal paid for lawyers to improve her factional position by throwing opponents under bus. Liberal backers laugh because when the time comes she is the perfect candidate for also going under the bus. See also Jo Jo de Bruyn. The right factions in unions are money in the bank for Tory poo poo lords.

WebDog posted:

From what I can gather she was championed as a whistle blower in the Thompson scandal, then it was discovered she's been up to no good herself. So I'm curious to why did the Libs cozy up to her in the first place? And why does that revelation of her misdoing scare them off when you sort of have an perfect example of a Union secretary being corrupt as they come - surely she'd be the perfect example to fire the Royal Commission at?

Cartoon posted:

Traitor inside union decides to use Liberal paid for lawyers to improve her factional position by throwing opponents under bus. Liberal backers laugh because when the time comes she is the perfect candidate for also going under the bus. See also Jo Jo de Bruyn. The right factions in unions are money in the bank for Tory poo poo lords.