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Natee's Blog
No longer a journalist....still love writing.
Permalink : http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/natee
Wednesday , June 18 , 2008
Studying in the UK (5.5) - International Students Don't Have Sufficient English Skills (BBC)
Posted by natee , Reader : 2513 , 11:09:20   | Category : Studying in the UK  
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I have implied this several times in my blogs on studying in the UK, but this half a blog is to promote a very interesting BBC story on how a lecturer has come out to say that most international students do not have sufficient English language skills to go on an UK postgrad course. This is a rampant problem in the UK and probably one of the worst kept secrets among academic circles within the UK. I'm glad someone has spoken out and hope some action will be taken in this matter.

Also take some time to read the comments in the news article.

And parents, think twice before splashing out your hard earned money on your children's education. Don't make education yet another vanity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7358528.stm

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comment 7
bkkboy06 date : 27/06/2008 time : 16.16

I think I might have miscommunicated a little bit in my last post (please excuse my poor English):

"You might have heard about the B80,000 Doctoral Degrees that once swept Thailand, mostly among wealthy Chinese merchants in Thailand. None of those degrees were ever in Social Welfare, Science or even Anthropology."

- That was exactly what I meant!! Cuz Public Health, Social Work and the like are less popular, hence less number of people who want to get these degrees from the UK (so the demand is less than that of an MBA from the same institution), so is it possible that there would be less pressure on the staffs to take in all students who can pay (regardless of their English or qualifications) and try to maintain a bit higher standard?

"I don't give much hoots to what you have got in the paper, we do care what you have got in your head!"
- Hear, hear!! You have my respect and admiration there!
comment 6
Piset date : 24/06/2008 time : 13.50
http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/mahwatthai
Piset

Quote:

"In other words, as a Master's in Social Work or Public Health or Science is perceived to have a lower financial payout than an MBA (and maybe it's less of a 'gold mine' in this sense), do you think that the former programme will have maintained a higher academic standard than the latter?"

You are very wrong there. Please consider this, fake and imitation products only existed in fast-selling, famous, and popular products only, never in the slow selling and unpopular products.

Fake products and fake degrees are just the same, where there is a will, there is a way. Wherever there is a demand, there is a supply. So, people want high income from those highly marketable degrees resulting in the watering down of these degree by many irresponsible institutions.

You might have heard about the B80,000 Doctoral Degrees that once swept Thailand, mostly among wealthy Chinese merchants in Thailand. None of those degrees were ever in Social Welfare, Science or even Anthropology.

On the other hand, when the boards of accreditations consider the creditabilities or the standards for any degree or graduate degree programs, the same academic standards are applied to the course contents, course compsitions, program structures, teachers qualifications, library resource's adequacy, etc. Never about the marketability of the degrees or the salary of the graduates.

One more point to add, an MBA degree does not automatically mean high starting salary. With the exception for a few cases of incompetent bosses or HR people, the MBA certificate is only an entry visa into a job interview, at most.

Not many incompetents could really fool the HRs or the bosses into high salary. Not for long, at least.

As a practice, I always instruct the interviewees to put away all the degree certificates and transcripts in favor of my own written tests and my own probing interview.

"I don't give much hoots to what you have got in the paper, we do care what you have got in your head!"
comment 5
bkkboy06 date : 23/06/2008 time : 09.07

Ah ha! I knew it!

However, do you think that there are differences among programs in the maintainance of standard level, esp. the ones that do not necessarily lead students to a higher (MUCH higher) dek-nok paycheck upon graduation?

In other words, as a Master's in Social Work or Public Health or Science is perceived to have a lower financial payout than an MBA (and maybe it's less of a 'gold mine' in this sense), do you think that the former programme will have maintained a higher academic standard than the latter?

It's kinda hard to get this point across...maybe I'll have to re-visit this blog several times more to make my message clearer.
comment 4
Piset date : 22/06/2008 time : 09.34
http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/mahwatthai
Piset

Khun Natee:

During the past 9 years of teaching and training in China after retiring from senior management, I had told a number of universities and training companies to find someone else to teach or train for them for very similar reason, that is, institutional educational irresponsibilities. The most frequently used explanation for them was, "We need to get more students (or trainees) to meet out financial plan. We must ask your cooperation to give the students high score or easy passing for the program to help us attract more students (or trainees)."

When I asked them, "Why don't you try it another way, to establish your reputation for being a credible college with responsible educational work and fully employable graduates," they respond was typically, the market for that is just too small and too far.

I am sure many of those private (or even some public) colleges and universities in UK, US, Australia or New Zealand would find the same problems.

The issue now is whether it is an absolute necessity for the graduates to speak fluent English?

Many of them would tell me, I cannot speak very well, but I can write! Some even said, in the real working situation, all he would need is a team of competent interpreters and translators to serve that language short-coming. With that, one can actually gain accesses to all the learning and research resources as necessary.

The issue is, would Oxford, Cambridge, or MIT accept a student with high scholastic standing from home land who arrived with a team of 6 personal translators and readers to support him on the English language side?
comment 3
Ian date : 20/06/2008 time : 23.59
http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/anterian36

Natee, read Greg's latest blog, it can only get worse!
comment 2
natee date : 19/06/2008 time : 09.01
http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/natee

Haha, thanks for the warm greeting. Although I don't write much, I tend to be a regular lurker at this blog!
comment 1
redandwhitestripes date : 18/06/2008 time : 20.57
http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/reallifethailand

Good to hear from you, Natee!
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