The Wall Street Journal's article on "Foreign Students Seen Cheating More than Domestic Ones" (download requires purchase) reported that international students are five times as likely to cheat based on review of over a dozen universities' records. Coming from a respected journal that appeals to business interests, the issue of U.S. institutions enhancing their budgets by admitting larger and larger numbers of international students is only briefly noted. Complaints about the level of cheating were registered by some international students and several faculty who describe the typical profile of a cheater as a student with poor English skills who cheats out of desperation in completing assignments.
What kind of services are universities providing when students do not meet the prescribed standards for admission? What commitment is there to help international students be successful, especially knowing how much rides on their success in obtaining a university degree?
Profit is being made - by institutions and by agents who are involved in more than a third of the placements of international students in U.S. universities. Unfortunately, one agent was quoted in the Wall Street Journal article as saying that international students being charged with cheating was a business opportunity. A Pittsburgh-based consultant for WholeRen Education who helps place Chinese students in the U.S. when they are at risk of losing their study visa was quoted, "We have to act very, very quickly." "When we get a call, we are counting by the hour." The Journal went on to indicate that in one example of a Chinese student selling test answers to classmates, WholeRent Education was successful in placing the students involved in a U.S. community college for a year and a half and then secured readmission to the university where they had been dismissed.
In a move designed to discourage cheating among Chinese students within China, a new law will punish students who cheat on the all-important gaokao test for admission to higher education with imprisonment for 3 years in minor cases and up to seven years for more serious violations.
What kind of services are universities providing when students do not meet the prescribed standards for admission? What commitment is there to help international students be successful, especially knowing how much rides on their success in obtaining a university degree?
Profit is being made - by institutions and by agents who are involved in more than a third of the placements of international students in U.S. universities. Unfortunately, one agent was quoted in the Wall Street Journal article as saying that international students being charged with cheating was a business opportunity. A Pittsburgh-based consultant for WholeRen Education who helps place Chinese students in the U.S. when they are at risk of losing their study visa was quoted, "We have to act very, very quickly." "When we get a call, we are counting by the hour." The Journal went on to indicate that in one example of a Chinese student selling test answers to classmates, WholeRent Education was successful in placing the students involved in a U.S. community college for a year and a half and then secured readmission to the university where they had been dismissed.
In a move designed to discourage cheating among Chinese students within China, a new law will punish students who cheat on the all-important gaokao test for admission to higher education with imprisonment for 3 years in minor cases and up to seven years for more serious violations.
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