Corruption in education

By Hussain Mohi-ud-Din Qadri

The United States has had an influx of foreign students since 2008.
While the percentage of these students has risen to high levels, the
fact that most of these students are passed through without even
getting an education is unbelievable. This sort of 'admission practice' is
also happening in the United Kingdom and in Australia as well. A lot of
students from China, India, Thailand and Pakistan are gaining
university admission not because of their educational merit, but
because they have a large amount of money to hand over. Some US,
UK, Australia, International students from abroad are literally paying
their way to good grades instead of studying and learning to get them.

The admission of these students like this is an outrage and a manifest

violation of merit and civilized norms. This is especially true when this
practice has affected the admissions of those local students who want
to join universities purely on educational merit. Due to these schools
being full of the moneyed foreigners, there isn't a lot of room left for
those students that truly deserve to be there. This leads to questions
as to what has happened to morals of education system of these
countries.

While most of the educationists do not subscribe to this policy of

admissions, they have, however, been instructed to turn a blind eye
and deaf ear to such instances or get ready to lose their positions
altogether. These professionals have most likely been threatened with
the fact that this money being obtained from these kinds of students is
what forms their salaries.

Most of these students from the foreign countries can't speak English
well even after they have graduated from a top-notch university. What
does this mean for the officials at these institutions? What does this
say about the governments that are supposed to be aiding these
universities with funds for scholarships and faculty salaries?

This should serve as a sign for all that there is trouble somewhere in
these educational structures. Something that is amiss enough to cause
illegitimate practices such as these university admissions to these
students is appalling.

Most universities have admissions requirements for those international

students that plan to apply at their institution. These guidelines are
certainly being ignored in many cases and compromised greatly for the
sake of a dollar.

The emphasis that these schools are placing on money when it comes
to these kinds of students is extreme. Extreme enough that these
students are being passed off as something they are not. They leave
that school with a supposed hard earned degree that is truly a
falsification, an outright lie and obvious deception.

The sad fact is that the students that deserve to be in the seats of
those universities don't get to be. They are settling for second rate
schools that are going to provide them with a second rate education.
These are the students that could make positive contributions to
society.

The world's very future depends on these kinds of students that are
being pushed to wall for the sake of money and more money. These
are some of the students that are likely to succeed in these schools,
gaining high marks on their own merit without having to flash a buck
or two to the right person to get them.

The worst case scenario is when these foreign students are passed on
to graduation; they are graduating with a deceptive degree. Some of
these students end up in the workforce of these countries they
attended school at. This spells disaster for some of those
infrastructures hiring them. This is especially true of medical fields of
these countries, the one place where every single individual involved
needs to have true knowledge about what they are performing as a job
in medicine.

How can these universities expect the economies to be run efficiently

when they are turning out students that are fouling up the workforce
with unacceptable performances in the very fields they hold a
bachelor's degree in? Consider the number of law suits due to this
fact.

Another grey area in the admission system of foreign universities is

that certain developing countries like Pakistan have forged educational
partnerships with the top universities of the world. They send the
students having poor educational track records, selected through
spurious process, for higher education to these universities whose
stupendous cost is paid by the taxpayers. These students ‘outsource’
their research work and other assignments and thus are able to get
good grades. Upon returning to their countries, they hold important
positions. One can well imagine the disaster caused to public interest
in the entire process. This writer also has practical experience of
coming across a group of the Pakistan students who were sent to
Australia to get higher education. Majority of them were not able to
write even a single correct sentence in English. There is a need to
formulate Standard Operating Procedures to ensure that the deserving
students get to the top universities through a sound process of
selection.

There are many of these kinds of lawsuits present in the field of

medicine. The rising number of law suits being argued over in the
courts due to reckless judgments by those who are supposed to be
prolific in their fields is a waste of money and an additional factors in a
failing economies.

The average person could visit a hospital in any of these countries and
find a doctor from China or India. While some of these professionals
may really be proficient in their field and actually know what they are
doing, there are a lot at the same time that graduated from schools
that didn't care what kind of grades they actually made; they were
going to pass anyway.

The problem is being able to choose the professionals that have a real
education through earning through studying not by paying the
educators off. Concerning the field of medicine, choosing wrong could
mean serious consequences for someone innocent.

The big question is how to find the ways to stop these illegal and
immoral university admissions. Does there have to a planted spy in
every university admissions office or can the officials at these schools
face their governments for the monetary support they need to be able
to operate efficiently?

If you or someone you know is applying for admission into any

university, you should stop and ask someone there on the top of ladder
just how many US, UK, Australia, International Students are admitted
without having educational merit. Maybe then these officials would
realize how unfair the game is that they are playing in the educational
system. It is the capable students and the public that ultimately suffer
from the aftereffects.

The writer is a PhD candidate at an Australian University