International students in UK fall short in English, still get degrees: Report

All might not be well with the UK's higher education system. Two anonymous professors from the Russell Group institution claimed that a significant chunk of international students in the UK do not meet the basic requirements, especially English language skills, necessary to obtain a degree – and yet degrees are being awarded.

The anonymous professors of the Cambridge-based group also warned that the problem is most acute in Master’s programmes and "poses a serious long-term risk to the international standing of UK higher education".

"We don't know how many students with inadequate English language skills are managing to get admitted," the professors stated in the blog published by the Higher Education Policy Institute.

The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public research universities in the UK.

The students might also include Indian students, given they are the largest cohort of international students in the UK, particularly in the master's programmes.

Indians represent the largest group of international students in the UK, followed by Chinese, Nigerians, Pakistanis, and Americans. Of these, 81% came to the UK for master’s programmes. In the year ending June 2024, 1,10,006 study visas were issued to Indian students to study in the UK.

DECLINE IN QUALITY OF MASTER'S-LEVEL TEACHING

The authors of the report noted that master's-level teaching, which was once rich, challenging, and enjoyable, is no longer the case.

"But now, a master’s seminar in the disciplines that we both teach typically involves a cohort in which three-quarters of the students (and often more) are from a single country, a few are international students from elsewhere and one or two are home students", the two professors wrote on the blog.

The professors described how master's classes have been affected by students' lack of English skills, forcing teachers to change the content, style, and pace of classes.

The task of learning is being delegated to the apps, they said.

"Open questions to the whole class are often met with silence, while group tasks are typically conducted using translation apps, before usually the same student from each group is tasked with reading out the answers." the two anonymous professors wrote on the blog.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT RELIANCE ON TRANSLATION APPS

They held that this is having a "detrimental impact on staff mental health" as teachers must deliver classes that are "well below degree standard".

"We have both regularly encountered students who are unable to understand simple questions like, ‘What have you read on this topic?’ Meetings often go nowhere, ending with a request to the student to put their questions or concerns into an email instead," shared the professors.

The higher-education in the UK, they claim, has been underfunded and even "marketised". They "marketised the higher education system, and university leadership that value the generation of a financial surplus above all else," noted the blog.

In 2023-24, the UK government spent approximately 4.1 percent of its gross domestic product on education, a percent lesser than in the previous financial year, according to Statista.

The universities' income from domestic students is too low – and has led to a rush to recruit high-fee-paying international students," according to the blog.

RECRUITMENT AGENTS AND MISLEADING INFORMATION

The two professors in the blog also said that universities increasingly rely on distant recruitment agents that sell UK higher education ‘packages’ to students.

"Departments and programme convenors often have little or no input into who is admitted to study. We also don’t know how these students are managing to pass their degrees (despite often failing their initial assessments in massive numbers – in our experience, often over 50% of cohorts), though they fear that the results of close inspection would not look pretty," they wrote.

They also claim that there is a culture of silence around the issue, as professors fear for their jobs.

Universities in the UK have focused on how international students must demonstrate minimum English language standards to qualify for a study visa, and universities use various mechanisms to protect these standards.

"For the best students, the experience of Masters-level study is frequently terrible: we both now advise our best students to go overseas. It is a very poor experience for students struggling with English too. This all poses a serious long-term risk to the international standing of UK higher education," said the professors.

The academics conclude by saying that they now advise their best students to go overseas, as the experience of master's-level study is frequently "terrible" for them in the UK.

They offer three solutions. There needs to be an honest evidence-based conversation around the dire problem. The culture of silence needs to end. The problem needs to be on the table when higher education funding and policy is discussed.