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Overseas students are academically better than local australians

Alan Olsen， an international overseas educationist， says that Australians could stop criticizing overseas students over their academic performance because they are now academically better than local Australian students.

Olsen said in the Australian International Education Conference that“people should no longer complain that they （overseas students） cannot speak English， because there is data showing that they are improving our academic standard.”

Olsen’s words are not based on nothing. Instead， it is the progress rate of the freshmen in 2012. Last year， the overseas students’ performance for the first time surpassed local students in that case. Overseas students’ pass rate reached 84.68%， higher than the 83.64% rate of local students. As Olsen pointed out， the 1% gap is very significant.

In 2011， Gigi Foster， an economist at New South Wales University， finds that overseas students from non-English countries could improve their scores when receiving excessive study together. In addition， the international students were still behind local students in the average scores， but Olsen did not agree with this.

In his opinion， the data in 2012 shows that overseas students’ academic performance got real improvement. He thinks this is because Australian universities set the permission standard more reasonably and help overseas students to know more about the curriculum and English study.

Andrew Norton from Grattan Institute says that the data in 2005 and 2012 shows that the pass rate is related with the enrollment rate of overseas students. “Most universities that have more overseas students pass the exams have reduced the number of overseas students because they improved the requirements.”

In the meeting held by Olsen， a man questioned that the group of data just showed the academic recession of local students. From 2009， the academic scores of local students kept dropping from 85.54% to 84.64%. Olsen says that the only trend revealed by the data is the improving performance of overseas students.

Norton says that the deteriorating performance of local students is a result of the “lowered ATAR”. He points out that the universities began to recruit more local students， allowing some poorly-scored students to get enrolled by universities， which lowered the pass rate of local students.”

Australia mining tycoon contributed the largest single donation

Andrew Forrest， an Australian bil- lionaire， announced on October 15 that he would contribute AUS$ 65 million to five universities in West Australia. This is the largest single donation in the history of Australia.

Forrest announced this donation when he was present in an evening with his wife in Perth， capital of West Australia. The five universities include University of West Australia， where Forrest graduated. It is said that AUS$ 50 million of this donation is going to fund the doctorate and post-doctorate research programs and the rest is going to be used to build “Forrest Mansion”， the new dormitory for students.

Forrest is the founder of FMG， the third largest mining company in Australia. Presently， he and his wife own 33% stakes of the company. Their total wealth amounts to about AUS$ 5 billion. The couple answered to the call of U.S. billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett who has decided to contribute most of their assets to the philanthropy. By now， Forrest and his wife have already contributed AUS$ 270 million.

Forrest graduated from University of West Australia in 1983 with the bachelor degree in economics. As for the reason he funded the higher education， he says that the education is a noble way to eradicate the poverty， improve people’s livelihood and so on. He hopes that his donations can improve the appeal of universities in Australia to attract more talents from the world.