Universities are prioritising high fees from international students over sufficient English language skills, a BBC investigation revealed this week.
Trade unions told the BBC it was an “open secret” that UK universities admit foreign language students with limited proficiency in English for financial gain.
An anonymous whistleblower previously employed by StudyGroup, a business that provides pathways and English language courses for international students, has compared the process to the “Wild West”.
They added there is little independent scrutiny of grades or examinations, as universities are so desperate for international fees that they are willing to waive standard requirements.
In 2021/22, UCL derived 76% of its revenue from international students, compared to an average of 57% in other Russell Group universities.
Meanwhile, the number of international students at UCL has increased by 11,455 between 2015 and 2022, the most of any Russell Group in Britain, and far greater than the 5,430 increase in UK home students during the same period.
It comes as an investigation by The Times this year found that top British universities – not including UCL – were providing “back door routes” to recruit lucrative overseas students.
It revealed that entrance requirements for these students were far lower than that of their UK counterparts, with some courses lowering their entry requirements from A* and A to grades as low as Es through International Foundation pathways.
‘Omnipresence’ of overseas students at UCL
While the large international student cohort is celebrated at UCL, rightfully, as a marker of the University’s diversity and global connections, it is telling that the most popular post on the UCL subreddit (r/UCL) this year comes from a student seeking “any advice to feel more included” on their masters course titled: “Feeling overwhelmed by the ‘omnipresence’ of Chinese speakers”.
They said: “When I try to start a conversation with them, they will quite often answer quickly and switch back to Chinese”, adding that whilst working on a group project, they were unable to contribute as the rest of the group did not speak English.
Some 70% of Masters students in the UK are from overseas, according to the BBC report.
Writing in the Times this week, one Russell Group lecturer claimed that the standard of English among their students – 65% of whom were Chinese – was “shockingly poor”. They recall students unable to complete homework tasks due to the language barrier, and that some use language translation software to get by.
One UCL archaeology student we spoke to recalled seeing multiple foreign language students using live translation apps in a lecture last year, presumably because they could not understand the lecturer who was speaking in English.
Another student in a language department said that fellow students were openly admitting to translating core texts from their original language into Chinese and then into English via Google Translate.
They added that there is a “lack of engagement with [the language that they study] from many international students in the department, as they do not have a firm grasp on the English language, and so many of them don’t show up to lectures.”
Speaking to the BBC, an international student going by the pseudonym Yasmin claimed that some 80-90% of international students on her course were buying assignments from “essay mills” based overseas to circumvent their lack of English language skills.
While The Cheese Grater cannot independently confirm that this happening at UCL, there are numerous examples of these “essay mills” advertising on university society group chats aimed at international students, almost always originating from a foreign phone number.
One such message read: “Dear Students… We will give you A+ grade… Just Massage [sic] Us… We Are Providing Proposals, Presentations, Dissertations, Essays, Research papers, Reports, Academic”.
Non-English speakers ‘alienated’ by community
The Cheese Grater also spoke to an international student at UCL to gain further insight into the conversation about the English proficiency of foreign language students.
“In terms of personal experience”, he said, “because I am of Chinese descent people do randomly come up and speak Mandarin to me. I recognised then that a reason why students not only don’t have good English, but don’t improve on their English, is because they might not have an incentive to.”
“There is a large mainland Chinese population [at UCL], so chances are you will have an entire social circle of people from your background, hence [there is] no incentive to switch languages.”
“Due to my appearance, not only Chinese people, but shop owners, etc., start speaking to me in Mandarin assuming I am from China, so it goes to show that the university areas have also adapted to be more friendly towards non-English speakers.”
While these experiences provide further evidence of the apparent language divide, his comments also point to a need for understanding towards foreign language students.
International students in the UK receive a lot of negative press, and articles like the BBC and Times investigations, as well as the above Reddit post, can be used to fuel xenophobic sentiments.
“There is also the general cultural context of being in a foreign country, you might not drink, but you might be a good Mahjong player, and so you never actually spend time with people outside of your cultural background.”
He added finally: “From experience going on mixed cultural meals, I would observe that people who are second language speakers just feel alienated because nobody speaks to them.”
