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As a former academic yes the universities know this is happening and apply great internal pressure to ensure it continues so the gravy train keeps going. It is

As a former academic yes the universities know this is happening and apply great internal pressure to ensure it continues so the gravy train keeps going. It is a very bad idea for your career to try to do something about this by identifying the cheats. The hard sciences are pretty immune to it at the undergraduate level (we have exams), but it is totally rampant in the economics/commerce/arts facilities. Where the hard sciences have issues is at the postgraduate level where you are expected to ensure all your overseas students graduate even if they can't write in English and know next to nothing about the topic. After you have been through an incoherent thesis draft for the fourth time you know it is going to be quicker to just write it yourself.

bradleyjg 8y ago
All models are broken. But if you model most organizations with perpetual boards, as universities do, as partnerships run for the benefit of senior administrators and in the case of universities a handful of powerful faculty you’ll find it’s a pretty good fit.
choonway 8y ago
How did they get in the first place? You mean they managed to cheat their GRE as well?
- danieltillett 8y ago
  Do you mean the postgraduate science students? That is a good question, but I can say of science Ph.D students if you come with a scholarship from your home country and can fog a mirror then the Australian universities will accept you. I should add that some of the best Ph.D students I have worked with were overseas students. It is not that all overseas students are bad, just that the bottom 25% are not capable of doing a Ph.D and yet we still give them a degree.
- csa 8y ago
  Yes. There is a very healthy market for every major standardized test (GRE, GMAT, etc.) as well as most (all?) of the major English proficiency tests. Every security measure I have heard of for western testing within the PRC can be bribed around, and it’s so commonplace that it barely warrants discussion (“of course it happens [eyeroll]”. I have heard of a few US schools doing on-campus retests for English proficiency, but mismatches are simply met with required ESL courses (paid non-credit, of course). I have not heard of other on-campus testing, and I’m not sure anyone wants it since these students usually pay full tuition.

bradleyjg 8y ago

All models are broken. But if you model most organizations with perpetual boards, as universities do, as partnerships run for the benefit of senior administrators and in the case of universities a handful of powerful faculty you’ll find it’s a pretty good fit.

choonway 8y ago

How did they get in the first place? You mean they managed to cheat their GRE as well?

danieltillett 8y ago
Do you mean the postgraduate science students? That is a good question, but I can say of science Ph.D students if you come with a scholarship from your home country and can fog a mirror then the Australian universities will accept you. I should add that some of the best Ph.D students I have worked with were overseas students. It is not that all overseas students are bad, just that the bottom 25% are not capable of doing a Ph.D and yet we still give them a degree.
csa 8y ago
Yes. There is a very healthy market for every major standardized test (GRE, GMAT, etc.) as well as most (all?) of the major English proficiency tests. Every security measure I have heard of for western testing within the PRC can be bribed around, and it’s so commonplace that it barely warrants discussion (“of course it happens [eyeroll]”. I have heard of a few US schools doing on-campus retests for English proficiency, but mismatches are simply met with required ESL courses (paid non-credit, of course). I have not heard of other on-campus testing, and I’m not sure anyone wants it since these students usually pay full tuition.