How do we fix the two-tier higher education system?
Recently there have been many articles in the newspaper about illiterate students graduating from the Big G08 universities with poor skills. It is a sad state of affairs.
I can state from my own personal experience that there is definitely a big difference between the quality of an international student and that of a local student that has studied at the same university. Why that is the way it is very complex, and we probably need to discuss those underlying factors such as family upbringing, passion for their career, dedication to the community or country, and more. (Discuss below in comments please. I would like to know your opinion.)
This also flows into another discussion about whether migrant qualifications are the same because frankly they are not. If you have a Bachelors from some third world country, how is that equivalent to a bachelors in IT engineering or bachelors of computer science from UNSW -> Albeit I digress for one minute to clarify and state there is also a two-tier system for locally obtained qualifications which is the issue discussed in the paragraph directly above. The same issue arises with a bachelors in engineering, as we might use substantially different materials in Australian construction which would not be reflected in the topics covered in a Bachelors degree from a third world country. (Now, I hope I haven't offended any Poms who may also view themselves as migrants, but nevertheless what word can I use here instead? I added the word third world to assist, but maybe that doesn't quite capture the issue. Nevertheless, How can I be descriptive of the problem, but at the same time be politically correct. Let me know in the comments.)
There are two main issues to discuss here:
First is the fact that a migrant qualifications are not the same even though they have the same title name in their qualification. How do I put it simply? I am a CEO, but that does not mean I'm earning $30+ million advising the Qantas Board members.
Secondly, the qualifications obtained locally are not of the same standard because the Big G08 universities want to keep the revenue money making machine running and therefore the standards are much more loose. (Have you experienced this during your university studies, I definitely did. You probably did have that student that didn't have a clue but leeched off the group assignment marks. Or am I the odd multicultural fanatic and you guys just stuck with your own peers from high school; was I the only one to actually do group assignments with these international students? Let us know in the comments.)
As you can see from my background, you can probably tell I thought multiculturism worked, but now I can't say that anymore.
At best a lot of the Bachelors in IT from a third world (substitute politically correct word here) country are basically equivalent to TAFE Cert IV or III of IT. Something mentioned in this news article I saw recently involved an engineer. Now I don't have any experience in civil engineering, and I don't know what equivalent that would be in the TAFE system, but you probably could still get a job in the construction industry. Why most migrants choose not to do so is questionable. (Another topic you might want to discuss below, let us know.) Now you wouldn't exactly be able to walk onto the site and start constructing apartments in Sydney because frankly you probably don't know where to find the Australian standards or even know what they are, but you could be supervised as a labourer.
With 1 in 33 people in Australia being an international student. These ultimately flow on to some type of graduate visa and become permanent migrants. Then we ask ourselves what have we done, when these people could never have been productive in our society because they don't meet our standards in the areas that we have a skills shortage in as they require more training. Are we doing ourselves a disservice?
The other thorn employers have on their side are the societies that keep promoting the skills shortage, no one should fund these, cancel your yearly subscriptions. No more money to the ACS, no more money to Engineers Australia, no more money to your local group. I can take a local for the same amount we are probably spending on bringing in a migrant/international student because frankly let's not kid ourselves, they need just as much training.
Let's face it; this was never about a skills shortage, it was the members of these powerful lobby groups that just wanted the pipe dream of having high quality workers without having to train them. These lobby groups have infiltrated the political sphere. We should only have niche visas given out to those who have worked for the big Silicon Valley companies. That is what we need, if anything ACS should be promoting that.
Comment, maybe you are an employer who has also experienced such the two-tier education system. How do you propose that we deal with it?
Hopefully we can come together with some great ideas on how we can help Australia.
Most paragraphs are like a mini topic you can explore. (Brackets are a hint you can discuss that topic with the community). Hopefully that makes sense. It's long but you can cherry pick your own topic, or stick to the two main topics in the area below the part in bold.
Its too late!